Plans outlined for NewBo City Market

Demolition could begin as early as August on the Quality Chef complex to make way for the NewBo City Market.

Greg Eyerly, the city's flood-recovery director, said a remediation proposal will go out next week for the site in the 1100 block of Third Street SE.

The contract for that project, which includes removal of asbestos and other environmental hazards, should be awarded in July, he said, followed by the demolition contract in August or September.

Eyerly said demolition should take just weeks.

“It's not a complicated process,” he said, citing a tight footprint as the only impediment.

The NewBo City Market board has proposed keeping one portion of the complex - a building at 1100 Third St. SE - to use as the NewBo Market Store.

Referred to as the Day Company, the 3,600-square-foot, single-story building would house a grocery store featuring local foods from market vendors, augmented with healthy grocery items.

Eyerly said although it was flooded in 2008, the building appears to be structurally sound.

Cedar Rapids historian Mark Stoffer Hunter said the Day Company, named after Burton Day, was a service equipment company for hotels, restaurants, taverns and soda fountains that operated from the 1950s to 1970s.

The brick building, constructed in the early 1920s, originally housed a furniture store owned by Frank Trunecek. Stanley and George Barvinek operated a hardware store in a portion of the building in its early years.

Another part served as a tavern owned by Nick Zervakis in the 1940s, he said.

Stoffer Hunter said with restaurants and the proposed market, the New Bohemia area is reverting from industrial service companies, like Quality Chef, to its retail beginnings.

The NewBo City Market board presented its $6 million proposal to the City Council this week.

Board President Sarah Ordover said the goal is to open in spring 2011.

The group envisions a market hall with half of the selling space used for permanent stalls and the rest for seasonal vendors.

An outdoor market yard behind the market store and hall would have space for 44 vendors to use from May to October.

A market square at the corner of 12th Avenue and Third Street SE will be home to a playground, concerts, plays and other outdoor activities.

The Linn County Low Income Food Cooperative would operate from a distribution center behind the market store.

An 18,000-square-foot metal warehouse at the back of the site would be retained for use by outdoor vendors in inclement weather and for events and would serve as a giant canvas for artists.