As News 5 Cleveland reported, Don Whitaker said: "There might be inconveniences. You might have to go to one door that you're not used to. But we'll adjust."
He has worked the meat counters at Cleveland's West Side Market for more than 40 years and was talking about a $70 million renovation that started with a shovel in the ground in May 2025 and still has phases to go. If you shop at the market on West 25th Street in Ohio City, you've probably already lived through at least one version of "we'll adjust." The entrance you used in December might not be the one that works today. The stall where you bought tomatoes last spring might belong to a different vendor now, or the same vendor in a different spot. None of that is an accident. It's the logic of how you renovate a 114-year-old public market without ever telling 800,000 annual visitors to come back next year.
How the Renovation Is Sequenced
The Cleveland Public Market Corporation, the nonprofit that took over management of the market from the city in 2024, began construction in the East Arcade rather than the basement. The basement was filled with what workers described as antiquated walk-in coolers. The East Arcade is the shorter wing of the L-shaped produce hall, already the emptiest section of the building. Renovating the emptiest wing first meant fewer vendors had to be uprooted to get the project moving at all. Once that wing reopened, the busier North Arcade closed next, converted into staging space so crews could move into the basement without shutting vendors out of the building entirely. Empty space first. Busy vendors next. Basement work running underneath the whole sequence.
That East Arcade reopened January 9, 2026, as the newly named KeyBank Produce Arcade, with a ribbon cutting the following week. Produce vendors who used to work from raised stalls above the center aisle now sell at floor level. One vendor, Abbass Aboueleinain, told WOSU: "everyone here is all level." Tom Boutros, whose family has run a produce stand at the market for 23 years, told Spectrum News 1 the new space was "brand new" and "everything we've been looking for," pointing to better lighting and refrigerated cases that let more delicate produce be displayed for the first time.
What's Actually Closed Right Now
The tradeoff for that upgrade is the North Arcade, the longer wing connecting to the Market Hall. It closed once the produce vendors moved out, and it's being used as staging and swing space while crews move into the basement to replace mechanicals, add cold storage, and run new refrigeration lines. That means the walking route through the market has changed more than once in less than a year. As of the produce arcade's reopening, shoppers were directed to enter from the parking lots through the new arcade, or from Lorain Avenue directly into the Market Hall on the building's south side. The alley between the North Arcade and Market Hall is closed for construction.
If you're headed to the market this fall, a few things are worth knowing before you go:
- The market has stayed open on its regular schedule throughout construction. Officials committed to that publicly from the start of the project.
- Entry points have shifted at least twice since spring 2025. Confirm your usual door is still in use before you make a special trip for one vendor.
- The North Arcade's closure isn't cosmetic. It's the staging space that lets crews reach the basement without shutting the rest of the market down.
- The basement work, invisible to shoppers, is what determines whether the Market Hall gets reliable HVAC and the vendors get real cold storage, not the paint or signage upstairs.
The Vendors You Already Know, Just Moved
Part of what makes this a market story and not a construction story is that the names haven't changed even when the map has. Jessy Harb's parents immigrated to Cleveland and started Harb's Produce 35 years ago. Czuchraj Meats is still known for its double-smoked kielbasa. Steve's Gyros is still slinging some of the city's better-known gyros after decades in the building. Reilly's Irish Bakery still draws a line for soda bread. The renovation has moved some of these businesses temporarily, and it will move others again before the project wraps, but the vendor list itself is largely the same list that's been building relationships with regulars for years. That continuity is worth something. The market's own website counts roughly 60 to 70 small businesses currently operating inside, a mix of newer stalls and multigenerational ones, which is close to what it's had for most of the last decade even mid-renovation.
The Part You Won't See Is the Part That Matters Most
It's tempting to judge the renovation by what's visible: new floors, better lighting, a fresh sign over the produce arcade. But the work getting the least attention right now is arguably the most consequential. Rosemary Mudry, the CPMC's executive director, explained the sequencing choice directly: "We wanted customers to feel what this project is about," she said of starting with the produce arcade rather than the basement. That's a deliberate trade of visibility for buy-in. The basement mechanicals, the HVAC additions to the Market Hall, the new power generators and refrigeration systems, none of that photographs well for a ribbon cutting. But it's the infrastructure that determines whether meat and dairy vendors have workable cold storage for the next 100 years, not just the next five.
The Number That Decides What Happens Next
Here's the detail that turns this from a feel-good renovation update into something worth tracking if you live nearby: as of the produce arcade's January 2026 opening, the CPMC had raised just over $58 million toward the $70 million total project cost. That leaves roughly $12 million still to close. Mudry told reporters at the time that if the nonprofit secures that remaining funding by the end of 2026, the full transformation, including the North Arcade's conversion into a prepared food hall, an outdoor courtyard, and a new mezzanine event space above the Market Hall, could wrap by late 2027 or early 2028. If that gap doesn't close on schedule, the later and more ambitious phases are the ones most likely to slip.
That's a meaningful distinction for anyone who shops here regularly. The produce arcade you can already see and touch is locked in. The food hall and courtyard, the parts of the master plan that would give the market real seating and event space for the first time in years, are still contingent on fundraising that was roughly 80 percent complete when officials last discussed it publicly. Worth knowing before you plan around a food hall opening date that hasn't actually been set.
For Now, Come Hungry and a Little Patient
None of this changes what the market has always been for the people who use it weekly rather than as a tourist stop. It's still the place with 60-plus vendors under one historic roof, still the spot where you can find a whole jackfruit next to a butcher who's been slicing kielbasa in the same stall for decades. The renovation is real, it's ongoing, and it will keep rearranging the furniture for at least another year or two. But the market itself hasn't paused for any of it, and the vendors who make it worth the trip are still there, just occasionally behind a different door than the one you remember.
If you're new to the Ohio City area, or thinking about what daily life actually looks like in this pocket of Cleveland, a working public market a few blocks from your front door is the kind of detail that doesn't show up on a listing sheet but shapes how a neighborhood actually feels day to day.
Curious what else is changing in the Cleveland neighborhoods we cover, or thinking about what a move into one of them might look like? The Recker Team would love to talk. Experience the Difference — Request a Free Consultation.
