To forestall the inevitable confusion of people looking for Market Plaza on Market Street, the future Water Street home of City Market has been renamed West2nd.
Under a broiling sun September 8, developer Keith Woodard announced the $50 million mixed-use project’s new moniker. “We’ll still have a market, we’ll still have a plaza at West2nd,” he says.
The site that’s now a parking lot will be the permanent home of City Market, and include 262 parking spaces, of which 102 will be public, retail on Water Street, 55,000 square feet of office space, an event space and 68 “very deluxe” condos ranging from $400,000 to $1 million plus, according to Woodard.
“I took a drone and flew it up there and the views are spectacular,” he says. “Every condo will have a view.” And terraces, he says. A sales office will open on the Downtown Mall in October.
As for the city’s goal of providing affordable housing with every development, says Woodard, “We’ll be contributing to the affordable housing fund as part of the project.”
Mayor Mike Signer says West2nd will “add vibrancy” to the Downtown Mall. And he cites it as an example of “how the city can best leverage the assets it owns,” while facing the Water Street Garage, a partially owned city asset now in litigation.
The project, which has clogged surrounding streets as utility work is done, will have buried lines. Actual construction is expected to begin in about eight months and be completed by 2019.