The Broad Street Market’s brick building
Work to rebuild the burned-out brick building of the Broad Street Market appears to be one vote closer to starting, as a Harrisburg council member has announced a change in her position.
On Monday morning, Crystal Davis stated that she would switch her vote from “no” to “yes” on hiring Harrisburg-based Alexander Building Construction Co. to serve as construction manager for the lengthy project.
“I encourage my fellow council members to join me in voting ‘yes’ at Tuesday’s meeting because it is not fair to the market vendors or the people of Harrisburg to wait any longer to start construction on rebuilding the brick building,” Davis said, in a statement.
Davis’ vote alone is not enough to secure Alexander as project manager, the first step in a rebuilding process expected to take two to three years. Two weeks ago, council rejected the administration’s proposal to hire the company by a 5-2 vote, meaning that one more vote is needed, assuming that council members Ausha Green and Shamaine Daniels reiterate their “yes” votes.
Currently, a revote is not on the agenda for Tuesday’s council meeting, meaning the issue may need to be brought up from the floor during the meeting.
The initial vote to hire Alexander failed after several council members said that they believed the administration’s process for selecting a construction manager was not equitable or fair. The administration rejected that assessment, saying that the four firms in the running were judged based on a strict scoring mechanism.
After the “no” vote, the administration said that it would need to restart the search process from scratch, which, they stated, would take many months to complete. Already, the market’s brick building has sat untouched—charred, boarded up and largely roofless—for nearly 11 months, since the July 2023 fire, which displaced about two-dozen vendors.
The prospect of further delay brought widespread criticism of the “no” vote from Mayor Wanda Williams, members of the market’s board of directors and many residents.
“Local small businesses who were displaced by the fire will continue to go on without income and the community members who depended on the market for their groceries in an area otherwise defined as a food desert by the USDA will have to wait even longer now—despite on-the-record admissions by many members of Council that Alexander Building Construction Co. had the most qualified proposal,” said Eric Hagarty, chair of the Broad Street Market Alliance, following the vote.
Moreover, last week, Harrisburg’s two state House members issued a letter urging council to reconsider their vote, saying that the city would sacrifice potential state funding for the market if a construction manager were not selected before the next state budget cycle.
In her statement, Davis said that she also reached the conclusion that the project needs to begin as soon as possible.
“[Vendors] do no deserve to wait any longer,” she said. “The people of Harrisburg do no deserve to wait any longer. Work needs to begin today.”
Davis said that she remains concerned about the fairness of the city’s process for selecting companies hired by Harrisburg.
“We will need to continue to work with Mayor Williams’ administration to continue improving procurement procedures to ensure all companies who want to do business with the city of Harrisburg have a fair and equitable shake,” she said. “I have been assured these vital and hard conversations will continue.”
The construction manager helps to guide the overall project. However, the selection of other key positions, such as general contractor and architect, remains with the city.
Meanwhile, last week, the market’s temporary structure opened across the street from the market, more than 10 months following the fire. It houses eight vendors, including five displaced by last year’s fire.
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