The District government has decided to continue managing Eastern Market after a slate of private bidders failed to meet the city’s standards, D.C. officials said Friday.
A two-year, $25 million effort to rebuild the city-owned market after a devastating three-alarm blaze in 2007 is now drawing to a close. The work to rehabilitate the gutted South Hall has been expanded to include an overhaul of adjacent streets — a project that has temporarily relocated more than 100 weekend market vendors.
The city’s contract with former manager Eastern Market Ventures expired Jan. 1, and the Office of Property Management hoped to have a new contractor in place before the market’s scheduled reopening this summer.
But the responses to a request for proposals fell short of the “standards we were looking for,” OPM Director Robin-Eve Jasper said in a statement. It was unclear how many bidders offered to take over.
“The uncertainties arising from the streetscape and renovation make it unclear that a new manager could meet the legal requirement to run the market as a self-sustaining operation,” Jasper said. “Regrettably, therefore, we concluded that it is in the best interests of the market and the District to cancel this solicitation until we have a full understanding of the market’s economics.”
Ward 6 D.C. Councilman Tommy Wells, who represents the historic, 135-year-old Eastern Market, said he had no problem with the
District taking charge “as long as the government gives it sufficient focus.” Barry Margeson with OPM is the market’s interim director.
“I think that as long as the Office of Property Management has one person whose main job is to manage the market, and if that person is qualified to do it, I think that could work well,” Wells said. “It frees up more money to be used for the market’s purposes.”
Eastern Market vendors continue to operate out of a temporary structure on 7th Street SE.
