North Market Grant on Council Agenda as Merchant Building Slips
Council votes Monday on up to $125,000 for the city-owned market after the building on its old parking lot slid to a May 2027 finish. Status: On the agenda.
Columbus City Council is set to vote Monday, October 26, on up to $125,000 in city money for the North Market, the public market on Spruce Street, so it and its vendors can get through another year of construction next door. Ordinance 2773-2026 sits on the consent portion of the October 26 council agenda after a first reading on October 19.
The ordinance spells out why the request is back. Work on the Merchant Building, the project going up on what used to be the market's parking lot, started in autumn 2023. Its contract set completion for September 28, 2026. The city now projects substantial completion on May 3, 2027, about seven months later, so the North Market Development Authority, the nonprofit that leases the city-owned market, asked for help covering calendar year 2026.
This would be the fourth year of support tied to the same job. Three earlier ordinances, 2137-2023, 0804-2024 and 2777-2025, created a grant agreement in December 2023 and amended it in November 2025 to cover 2023 through 2025, with the stated goal of easing disruption for the market and its small businesses. The new measure sets up a fresh agreement paid from the General Fund and lets the authority be reimbursed for 2026 operating costs it has already spent, including costs incurred before a purchase order existed.
The legislation does not break the $125,000 into line items, does not name individual merchants and says nothing about parking once the new building opens. It also does not describe what the Merchant Building will hold, so we are leaving that out until a city or developer document does.
For regular shoppers the takeaway is simple: construction on the old lot now runs into at least next May, so holiday trips to the market should plan on nearby garages rather than a surface lot. The One Twenty Vine apartment plan a short walk away is another project reshaping parking in the area, the Arena District page lists places to eat between the market and the arena, and the rest of Monday's council business lands in our City feed.
