The public market planned for the city’s East Side next year could be delayed until 2021.
Madison Mayor Paul Soglin blamed the rising cost of city borrowing for the delay in the plan to take the city’s aging Fleet Services garage at North First and East Johnson streets and turn it into a $9.5 million to $13.5 million public market with retail, wholesale, and food production facilities. A demonstration kitchen, restaurants, brewery, and wine bar could also eventually be added to the market.
The city’s 2015 capital budget includes $6.25 million and a total of $8.6 million for construction envisioned in 2016 and 2017.
The delay is necessary, according to Soglin, because city borrowing must be cut and resources must be directed to other areas of need, including the planned relocation of Fleet Services.
