HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) - It may be back to the drawing board for the reconstruction of the Broad Street Market's brick building.
Harrisburg City Council voted 5-2 to reject Alexander Building Construction Co. as the construction manager.
Mayor Wanda Williams called the vote "careless" and "reckless," saying it would further delay the rebuild.
"Vendors will have to wait even longer to get back into their permanent home, and city residents will watch the one-year anniversary of the fire come and go without any work being done," Williams said in a statement. "The selection process now goes back to square one."
Eric Hagarty, chair of the Broad Street Market Alliance, said the alliance is "deeply disappointed" at the vote.
"City Council’s decision means that the procurement process will have to be redone and reconstruction of the Brick Building will not begin for at least another six months," Hagarty said. "Local small businesses who were displaced by the fire will continue to go on without income and the community members who depended on the Market for their groceries in an area otherwise defined as a food desert by the USDA will have to wait even longer now - despite on-the-record admissions by many members of Council that Alexander Building Construction Co. had the most qualified proposal."
The market, founded in 1860, is the oldest continuously-operated market in the country.
A temporary structure has been built to house 16 vendors in the interim.