Where's the Market?

On July 11, the Planning Commission waived a public hearing and approved the site plan for Galvan's Hudson Arcade Project, intended to be the location of Filli's Fresh Market, the grocery store that was to take Hudson off the USDA's list of "food deserts."

Considering the anxious attention given to this project by the current mayor and the former mayor, who now of course works for Galvan, as it made its way through the regulatory process--particularly when the design was being reviewed by the Historic Preservation Commission--it seemed reasonable to expect that workers would be on the scene within hours after the final approval had been granted, especially since the original plan was for the market to open in October. But two weeks have passed, and no work has begun.

Grumblings are starting to be heard on the street that, like so many other Galloway projects that have come before the HPC or the Common Council, this one either won't happen for years (as was/is the case with 102-104 Union Street, 202-204 Warren Street, 260 Warren Street) or won't happen at all (like the restaurant proposed for Dunn's warehouse). These intimations of disappointment inspired Gossips to ask Tom Swope, executive director of the Galvan Initiatives Foundation, what was happening. Here is his response: "We had hoped to have the project built by this fall, but that is proving unrealistic. Our timetable is now for a spring, early summer, of next year opening of the market."