NewBo market needs $600,000 by April to open this year

To open this year, NewBo City Market needs $600,000 by April, the project's backers told Linn County supervisors this morning.

"We're so close to making this go," Sarah Ordover said.

Ordover, NewBo marketing and fundraising chairwoman, said its prime contractor delivered the news last week that converting the former Quality Chef Foods plant on Third Street SE must start in April to ensure a fall opening. And that means closing the project's final $600,000 gap.

"We need to jump-start and launch our vendors big, and that means opening in November," Ordover said. Missing an April start would push the market's opening to spring 2013.

"That will hurt this project," Ordover said. "We're really under the gun right now."

Ordover asked supervisors for $100,000 over three years. The money would come from the $150,000 a year set aside to fund economic development projects.

Ordover said project backers have no intention of tapping a $1.3 million credit line with the city. The Cedar Rapids City Council approved the loan fund last fall to show support for NewBo's application for a grant from the state Vision Iowa fund, which came through with $750,000.

"We are committed to raising the money without having to access that," Ordover said. "It's a fall-back, but it's really last-resort. We think we're close enough so that we won't have to access that."

The city's donation of the old Quality Chef building and demolition of a flood-damaged structure at the site left NewBo supporters to raise about $3.8 million. Besides the VisionIowa grant, NewBo has landed $2.1 million in individual, corporate, and foundation support. Ordover said initial operating capital accounts for $300,000, which she'll continue to raise after work has started at the site.

Supervisors were generally supportive of Ordover's pitch, with a legal hitch. Because state law prohibits the board making binding obligations for future appropriations, supervisors could pass a resolution indicating multi-year support but NewBo would have to make formal requests each year.

Supervisors will probably act on Ordover's request at Wednesday's formal session.

Supervisor Brent Oleson was the only less-than-enthusiastic board member. He said he'll probably support an initial appropriation of $30,000 to $40,000, but he's skeptical the market will do much to change county residents' eating habits. Healthy eating and lifestyle activities have been key components of NewBo backers' appeal.

"I doubt they're going to change that many peoples' shopping habits," said Oleson, R-Marion. "This is not going to replace a supermarket."

Oleson added the market's patrons would be mostly "upscale," and "we're concentrating a lot of our (development) effort on downtown Cedar Rapids."

The other supervisors said NewBo will boost new small businesses beyond the area's market gardeners. The board's other Republican, former Palo Mayor John Harris, said he was similarly skeptical a few years ago when a small group of that town's residents launched a farmer's market "much to my doubt."

With just an initial six or eight vendors, the market "caused a traffic jam," said Harris. "It's kind of, if you build it they will come. People will travel to get good-quality food."