The Jefferson City Council approved a $3.5 million grant for a new market along the Missouri River during a meeting Monday.
The new facility will include a glass pavilion for farmers' markets and utility hookups for food trucks. Construction is expected to start in May and last about eight months.
General contractor Curtiss-Manes-Schulte will build the facility. Then, it will be up to Jefferson City's Parks, Recreation and Forestry department to attract vendors.
Molly Bryan is the city's public information coordinator. She said in addition to hosting a traditional farmers' market, the new space will be ideal for events like work lunches, birthdays and festivals.
"Jefferson City is really limited, I think, with our space and event space that we can offer for those kinds of activities," Bryan said. "So, this is going to be perfect for families to be able to utilize."
The building site used to host the Missouri State Penitentiary, which closed in 2004. Jefferson City Neighborhood Services supervisor Rachel Senzee said city staff hope the site will replace some of the old prison's social and economic value.
"When it closed, it had the impact that other small communities see whenever they have a plant closure of some sort or they have one of their main economic drivers go down," Senzee said.
She said people dropped off dry cleaning at the penitentiary and treated it as a community space.
City planners had to accommodate for potential flooding in their plans for the market because it will sit alongside the Missouri River. Luckily, most of the market will be on a hill.
"There is a low-lying area on the site that does have flood potential, and we've incorporated in the plan design to have that be a storm water retention basin," Senzee said.
Along with the River Market, Jefferson City is also building the Missouri One Health Lab across the street.
Senzee said both projects are part of a larger goal of turning Chestnut Street "from a utility road to a functioning city street."
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