Cedar Rapids community leaders have been talking about building a year-round farmers market for nearly a decade. Now they’re tussling about where to put it.

The New Bohemia arts and cultural district centered at 12th Avenue and Third Street SE has come up with a proposal to build the “NewBo City Market” in an old metal warehouse, now vacant and city-owned, that used to house Quality Chef Foods.

Meanwhile, another plan envisions an all-year, enclosed farmers market in the heart of downtown, perhaps in what had been the Ground Transportation Center bus depot.

It’s not the only recent downtown idea for such a market.

Before last June’s flood, Minneapolis developer Sherman Associates Inc. had proposed a new enclosed farmers market as a centerpiece for residential and commercial development along the river between Eighth and 12th avenues SE.

How, though, does a city decide where to put something that could attract additional economic development around it?

Michael Richards, president of the Oak Hill Jackson Neighborhood Association, a member of the New Bohemia cultural group and a board member of a new Southside Investment Board, says the only sensible place to put a year-round market is in the heart of an existing arts and cultural district, New Bohemia.

Richards ticks off several examples of cities from Pittsburgh to St. Louis to Omaha, Davenport and Wichita, Kan., where indoor farmers markets are located in warehouse districts on the edge of downtowns.

“They look for the more interesting part of town rather than the conventional downtown,” Richards said.

Richards put the price tag of the NewBo City Market at $890,000 and said construction could begin in 2010. He said the plan calls for demolishing much of the former Qualify Chef buildings along Third Street SE to make way for an outdoor use area with the enclosed portion of the market behind that.

Doug Neumann, director of the Economic Planning and Redevelopment Corp. and a Downtown District spokesman, on Wednesday said an enclosed, year-round farmers market has been a component of downtown plans for years.

He noted that Sherman Associates Inc., which the City Council picked before last year’s flood as the city’s “preferred” developer to build a downtown housing project, always mentions the need for a farmers market as a “central” ingredient in any kind of mix of residential and commercial development.

At the same time, Neumann said he doesn’t know enough about the NewBo City Market idea nor has he seen any specifics on a downtown proposal for a similar kind of market.

To judge a project, though, the community needs to measure a project’s feasibility and whether the public will use it and a developer can be interested in building it, he said.

Neumann added that “the health and vibrancy” of New Bohemia is critical to downtown health, and he noted that New Bohemia is part of the downtown’s redevelopment plan.

Richards said he first proposed a market along Third Street SE similar to what New Bohemia is now proposing 10 years ago when then-Mayor Lee Clancey included an arts and entertainment district along Third Street SE as one of 25 big ideas for the city.

The city’s unsuccessful Vision Iowa plans of several years ago also featured a farmers market near where New Bohemia now is proposing its market, Richards said.

Richards made note that a panel from the Urban Land Institute recently toured Cedar Rapids and recommended that the city invest in the U.S. Cellular Center, a new convention center next door and the night life potential on Third Street SE immediately next to it.

The heart of New Bohemia is 10 or more blocks away, but Richards said the city can focus there and New Bohemia. He said the “busiest corner” in the city on the weekends is one outside two nightclubs in New Bohemia.

 -Rick Smith, The Gazette

rick.smith@gazzettecommunications.com