Baltimore officials have been exploring options to redevelop the city’s public markets. On Friday, they floated a plan to start over entirely at the largest market.
According to the Baltimore Sun, the city-run Public Markets Corporation wants to raze and rebuild the market on the west side of downtown that opened in 1792. Under the plan, the new market would be a multi-story, glass building on an adjacent parking lot, with the site of the current market transformed into a park. Razing would start in 2018.
Public Markets Corp. Director of Development told the Baltimore Business Journal that customers and tenants preferred tearing the current building down over renovating.
Bringing some kind of change to the market has been talked about for the last several years. The 233-year-old market is the home of crab cake favorite Faidley’s and gets visits from the likes of Andrew Zimmern and Bon Appetit. But it also has challenges, having been called a “well known open air drug market” in this 2014 Sun article. The latest plan follows a renovation plan released last year that called for demolition of the market’s arcade, but mostly renovation.
It’s a dramatic plan for change, but not the only one happening at the city’s public markets. The city also recently unveiled a plan to renovate Cross Street Market in Federal Hill. The city also put out a call for proposals on Friday to redevelop Hollins Market and Broadway Market in Fells Point.
And I hope that Lexington Market will be respected for the jewel that it is after this renovation. I hope this new mayor will consider fining people for littering and seriously addressing the heroin epidemic that plagues this city. It’s a public health issue. Addiction and filth are two issues that Baltimore most face for the environment as well as for our image. This city has amazing potential.
Agree but you could build the freaking Taj Mahal loaded with food and it still will be filled with junkies.
It is not the market. It is the people.