One Year Later, Eastern Market Progresses Slowly
Image on the left, taken the morning of the Eastern Market fire, April 30, 2007. At right, the same view in the evening on April 15, 2008. Both photos by erin m
It was one year ago today that District residents awoke to the sad news that a fire had torn through Eastern Market's South Hall, displacing the many food vendors who called the historic building home and shuttering a favorite weekend destination. And though the city reacted quickly and constructed the East Hall, a temporary structure across the street, progress on the $20 million renovation of the South Hall has proceeded slowly.
So far, only the roof on the South Hall is close to completion. Officials from the Office of Property Management reported to the Eastern Market Community Advisory Committee on March 26 that the hall's roof would be completed by May 20, with window replacements to be finished by June 2. (Both are behind schedule as is, and there are even rumors that the roof won't really be done until late June.) The rest of the renovations, though, have yet to start. On April 10, the D.C. Council approved an $8.1 million contract with Forney Enterprises, four months after they had promised to identify and approve a contractor for the bulk of the work that needs to be done. The contract allows Forney 400 days to complete the work, though the firm has stated that it will not use the full time allowed in the contract. Regardless, a council staffer we talked to indicated that any re-opening would likely come in spring or early summer of 2009, months past the original plan of having the South Hall back and running by January 2009.
Of course, there's also the matter of the Seventh Street streetscape, and there have been continued debates over whether or not to permanently shut it down to vehicular traffic. While it has remained closed to traffic under a mayoral order since the fire, the order expires in May and community input is required to formally close the street thereafter. Some businesses favor the idea, others oppose it.
So why all the delays? Simple -- that's just how things get done. After the initial explosion of public support for renovating and re-opening Eastern Market as quickly as possible -- remember those "Rebuild Eastern Market" t-shirts? -- interest has faded as the matter has become more technical. It's no longer whether or not Eastern Market will be re-opened, it's just whether community activists and government officials can work together to efficiently jump through the many hoops placed before them. (Remember, it's a historical building, so there's no fast way to do things.) Additionally, the construction of the East Hall for the food vendors removed much of the urgency to re-open the South Hall, even though many of the arts and crafts vendors that regularly set up shop along the South and North halls have reported drops in business.
When it's all said and done, the South Hall will once again open, better than it was before. (It's the ultimate irony that before the fire there were long overdue plans to install sprinklers in the building; the plans were going through a cumbersome multi-review process.) But in the year that has passed since the fire, we've seen interest in the project come and go. Regardless, it'll once again be a happy day when Eastern Market is fully operational and the scars of the 2007 fire are erased.