North Market construction: When market expansion and 32-story tower could open
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Although many pieces remain in play, efforts to redevelop the North Market continue apace, even as the dining and other stalls remain open through it all.
For CEO and executive director of the North Market Rick Harrison Wolfe, it’s part of being on such a prime piece of real estate in Columbus, at a venue that sees over 1 million visitors each year and is home to some 30 vendors.
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“I like to say we’re Boardwalk on the Monopoly board,” Wolfe said. “We’re the gateway from the Short North to Downtown.”
Two major changes are coming with construction: the Merchant Building tower and an expanded North Market. The Merchant Building will include a 206-room hotel and residential and office spaces. North Market will gain 15,000 square feet over two stories, including space for eight or nine new vendors. A new plaza and a farmers’ plaza will be added, Wolfe said.
A 32-story tower also remains under construction on the site of the former North Market parking lot, with it on schedule to open in the summer of 2026, Wolfe said. That’s after construction was initially stalled when it was discovered that the parking lot was built over top of a 19th-century cemetery and that not all the bodies had been moved by the time it had closed.
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“That was really a huge part of this project to make sure that it was once and for all done properly and respectfully,” Wolfe said. “I like to say we righted the wrongs of 150 years in that, there were portions of the property that should have been addressed long, long ago.”
In 2022, dozens of grave shafts were discovered on what was once part of an 11-acre cemetery. Wolfe said those found during the exhumation process would receive a proper reburial. The cemetery closed sometime in the 1860s, and the market originally opened in 1876.
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Also coming to the North Market will be space for special events, private events and more. That will help the market financially.
“The market being a nonprofit, we need to come up with all the types of ways we can make a buck,” Wolfe said.
To that end, Columbus City Council recently approved up to $350,000 for operational support. That came after council approved more than $30 million for the project last July.
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