Construction of Salt City Market moving along; anticipating late November 2020 opening

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — Work is moving along quickly so that around this time next year, the Salt City Market in Syracuse will be open for business.

The Salt City market will be 78,000 square feet and four stories tall and will sit at the corner of South Salina Street and West Onondaga Street. It will feature 10 food stalls, a grocery store, cafe bar, and a teaching kitchen.

The second floor of the building will be office space and the top two floors will hold 26 apartments.

Construction crews have spent the last couple months digging up the old parking lot at that site and also digging deep into the ground to make room for the foundation.

Maarten Jacobs is the Director of Community Prosperity at the Allyn Family Foundation, the group behind the project.

He says, “We came out with a big vision and people were excited but maybe skeptical will this happen, so seeing the hole, people are like oh, okay you’re really building this thing, here we go.”

Crews will continue digging a couple more weeks, then start pouring concrete with steel expected to start going up in the first quarter of next year.

Jacobs says they’ve been encouraged by the continued support of the project.

“Just how much people are excited about and the community saying this is the right time for Syracuse to have something like this not just for the food but also sharing culture and sharing how can we come together in a space that sits at the edge of multiple neighborhoods,” he tells NewsChannel 9.

Parallel to the building project is work on finding the vendors who will fill the ten food stalls.

Market Manager Adam Sudmann says, “When you think about the food that’s going to be in the market I think it’s going to lean towards adventure. There will certainly be an international element there but there will also be foods close to home, foods that are familiar.”

It’s narrowed down to 17 semifinalists right now, with the finalists to be announced in February.

Sudmann adds, “And more than just having food we want this to be a place where people cross paths, that’s the most important.”

“We’re proud to be doing this and be a part of it and to see it becoming reality is always exciting,” Jacobs says.

The final Take Out Friday Lunch featuring Sleyrow will be November 22nd.