Hartford’s Parkville Market is still coming, but construction challenges have delayed the opening till later this year

Faced with unexpected construction delays, the highly anticipated Parkville Market will not open its doors until late 2019.

Challenges in converting the nearly hundred-year-old brick warehouse on Park St. into a modern dining and retail space have compounded since construction began in September 2018.

“I’ve learned that old buildings are a challenge,” said Chelsea Mouta, Parkville Market’s director of operations. “Every level deeper you go, you never know what you’re going to find. Anybody who does this kind of work will tell you that.”

Project leaders broke ground at 1400 Park St. last year with a grand opening planned for this past April. In January, developer Carlos Mouta pushed that opening until May or June. As those dates have passed, they now hope to open the market before the end of the year.

“We’re not going to rush anything,” said Chelsea Mouta. “It has to be safe, it has to be the best experience for the community.”

Designs for the upscale food court in the heart of Parkville call for two floors of vendors, outdoor terraces and a balcony bar overlooking Park Street. Planners also see the market as a community space with activities for neighborhood kids.

Job site superintendent Paul Dimock said the brick warehouse was built in the 1920s and is not up to code with today’s standards. For instance, the second floor balcony walkway needs to be reinforced with steel to support foot traffic. He said his construction crew has to wait for that steel to be made before starting their process.

Other structural concerns arose when Dimock’s crew dug into the ground below the site to insert an elevator shaft and discovered the soil there was composed of mostly clay, which they cannot build on.

“We ran into all these things here that were underground and not on any drawings,” Dimock said.

Builders are waiting to hear back from a geological engineer regarding a plan for how to adapt their design.

“We spoke with our construction manager, who said that from the time we get the geotechnical report that, right now, it will potentially be completed within three months of potentially getting that report sorted out,” she said.

In the meantime, workers have taken on smaller tasks like re-framing the roof, installing windows and shaping up the outdoor patios.

Chelsea Mouta said she is holding off on finalizing bids with vendors until she can offer them a more definite timeline for the construction process. She did not reveal which businesses are in talks with Parkville Market but said the team is working to sign licensing agreements this month with vendors who are “very interested.” Developers say more than 80 food, liquor and retail vendors have applied in the last nine months.

The market will have 19 spots on the ground floor for food vendors and 33 spaces on the second floor for retailers.

The project’s budget grew from $3.5 million when construction began to $5.1 this January. It’s being funded in part by Carlos Mouta, but the majority of money is coming from a $3.5 million Capital Region Development Authority bond and a $300,000 loan from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development. The state also granted the project $100,000 for creating 10 jobs.

Chelsea Mouta said developers are closing the loan soon with the CRDA, which will fund the market’s construction. She said she expects the market to create at least 200 jobs, between operations and actual vendors.

She said construction is only a piece of the Parkville Market project, and explained that her focus is on supporting local farmers and longtime residents.

“The construction is the four walls that are really a vehicle for this community were trying to build,” Chelsea Mouta said.

Slade Rand can be reached at krand@courant.com.