CLEVELAND — Construction on a roughly $70 million renovation of the West Side Market is set to start in mid-May, and new images show what shoppers and vendors can expect.
The Cleveland Public Market Corporation released fresh renderings Friday morning, after months of work with a design and construction team. The corporation, a nonprofit that runs the city-owned market, announced last week that it had closed on financing for the first phase of a massive effort to preserve and upgrade the 113-year-old landmark.
The entire project could take three years to pull off – if the nonprofit can swiftly raise the last $18 million it needs and move seamlessly into the second phase of construction. The market will stay open the whole time, with vendors moving around to accommodate work.
A lot of the money will go toward behind-the-scenes renovations to the building’s basement, where vendors store products and cut meat, and to basic infrastructure.
That includes adding building-wide heating and cooling systems to both the central market hall and the L-shaped produce arcade.
Today, neither building has air-conditioning. For heat, the grand hall only has a boiler and a few radiators. Vendors in the arcade rely on gas heaters above their stands, in a space that’s frigid in winter and sweltering in summer.
The goal is to make the temperature in the market more consistent and comfortable for shoppers and merchants – and better for their products, too, said Rosemary Mudry, the Cleveland Public Market Corporation’s executive director.
“This is a really exciting project that’s going to address many of the critical issues that merchants have faced, that’s going to improve the customer experience,” she said.
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Mudry stressed that it’s also a historic preservation project. There won’t be dramatic changes to the look of the central market hall. The financing includes federal tax credits for historic preservation, which put strict limits on construction and design.
Here are the reimagined spaces you’ll see at the market over the next few years:
Construction will begin with the eastern arm of the produce arcade.
That’s the shorter section of the L-shaped building. It runs along West 24th Street between the West Side Market’s parking lot and Lorain Avenue. The space will become a revamped home for produce vendors. It will be named for KeyBank, which contributed $1.5 million to the project.
Most of the existing vendors in the east arcade will relocate to the longer, northern section of the building during construction. A few vendors will move into the main hall.
Mudry said there’s enough room for everyone, with vacant stands in both buildings.
Renovations at the east arcade are expected to wrap up in late 2025. Then the produce vendors will move back in.
Construction will shift to the 29,500-square-foot basement, where the plans call for upgraded food storage; expanded areas for butchering, cutting and cleaning food; and a new commercial kitchen for food preparation and production.
Then the north arcade will temporarily close.
This rendering shows the reimagined north arcade, which runs along the side of the market between the parking lot and West 25th Street. That space will become a food hall. It will be filled with prepared food vendors and seating.
A new, covered walkway will connect the food hall to the main market building.
Another rendering shows how the outdoor space between the north arcade and the main hall will become a courtyard, with lights, permanent seating, and places for live music and activities. The courtyard will be named after the Connor family, in honor of a $3 million gift from the Connor Foundation.
Inside the market hall, long-vacant locker rooms on the mezzanine level will morph into spaces for events and cooking programs. A new balcony at the eastern end of the building will provide another place to sit, offering a view of the market floor.
If you’ve ever grabbed a bratwurst or a crepe and walked up the stairs to the existing, slim balcony, you were on the west side of the building. The new balcony and event spaces will be on the other end of the building, where an ornate clock hangs on a wall of windows.
A rendering shows an event space in the former men’s locker room, which is hidden behind that wall of windows.
Another image shows a teaching kitchen in the old women’s locker room. It will be used for a wide range of events, from children’s programs to adult classes.
The spaces are part of an effort to build new revenue streams for the market, so that one of Cleveland’s best-loved institutions and major tourist attractions can continue to thrive for another century.
“We’re still actively raising funds,” Mudry said. “We’re excited to be hitting this first stage of milestone, but we have a lot of work to do.”
A groundbreaking is scheduled for May 12.
As construction ramps up, Mudry said what the market and its vendors need most is support from shoppers. “Everybody has a home,” she said of the merchants. “The market is not looking to get rid of any existing merchants as part of this process.”
The design and construction team for the project is made up of DLR Group, Robert P. Madison International, Independence Construction and the AKA Team.
The funding is coming from a mix of public, private and philanthropic sources. The city pledged $23 million.
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The Cleveland Public Market Corporation recently closed on $28 million in financing through Cleveland Development Advisors, the investment affiliate of the Greater Cleveland Partnership. That transaction included $20 million in New Markets Tax Credits, federal and state incentives designed to bring private investment to economically distressed places.
