Supporters of year-round farmers market eye old Quality Chef site

Supporters of a year-round farmers market still have their sights set on the former Quality Chef site in southeast Cedar Rapids.

Cedar Rapids City Market Inc., which has been working on plans for the market, will formally ask the Cedar Rapids City Council to enter into an agreement on the Quality Chef site at the council's June 1 meeting.

Sarah Ordover, the market board's president, said she is unsure what that agreement will entail and whether the city might donate the land, sell it or enter into a long-term lease.

The board met today to review final site plans, a business plan and artist's conception for the site.

That information will be presented to the council next week.

A report issued last year called for a 9,000- to 12,000-square-foot market house, a  10,000-square-foot market yard and parking on the site.

The city-owned former Quality Chef buildings, at 1100 Third St. SE, were flooded in June 2008 along with the rest of the New Bohemia District.

An environmental assessment showed mold, asbestos and other pollutants inside the buildings.

Ordover said she would know more about remediation of those hazards at the council meeting.

Greg Eyerly, the city's flood-recovery director, has said once demolition has started on the city's flood- and fire-damaged Sinclair site, the Quality Chef site will follow within months.

Demolition of the former meatpacking plant, at 1600 Third St. SE, is under way.

The council has already discussed redirecting $160,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency from the flood-damaged Riverside Roundhouse, across the river from New Bohemia, to the new year-round market.

The roundhouse, which has been dismantled in hopes of rebuilding it in Czech Village, was the site of city farmers markets for decades.