St. Roch Market Is Being Rebuilt For a Second Time In New Orleans
Practically everything in the City of New Orleans has some important historic value to its residents, and the renovation and rebuilding of the St. Roch Market on St. Claude Avenue is no exception. The market was originally opened and run in 1875 offering fresh seafood, produce, and a variety of local vendors selling commodities. The market didn’t exactly thrive, and it was about to be permanently shut down just before the Great Depression when a local developer purchased the market in 1932 and completely renovated and rebuilt the market adding plumbing and refrigeration. The market was able to keep the doors open for all of the years after that, even servicing as a full-service seafood market for a few years until it was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
St. Roch Market is being rebuilt for a second time in New Orleans. Since 2005, the St. Roch Market has been empty, and at one time, it was put for sale by the city of New Orleans for $650,000 as a blighted property. The city is glad to announce that after a $3.7 million renovation, the St. Roch Market will be opening its doors once more as a functional market the first week of April, 2015. The renovation included the entire structure from the ground up and it also included additions to the structure to make the market larger. Renovation construction included replacing the roof, completely new electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and mechanical systems, structural siding and masonry new construction and repair, all doors, and windows, and the flooring of the market. The construction on the market was done by a conglomeration of New Orleans’ businesses called the St. Roch Community Partners, Inc.
St. Roch Market has attracted enough vendors to open its doors in April as a fully functional market. The types of offerings include fresh produce, fresh seafood, fresh meats, local sauces, dressings, jams, dips, and local favorites, breads and pastries, fresh coffee and juices as well as roasted coffee grounds and beans, different types of cuisine from Korea, Nigeria, and other international treats, and a fresh oyster / seafood bar. The market also features a full-service alcohol bar as well.
St. Roch Market is open daily from from 9am – 11am and is located at 2381 St. Claude Ave., New Orleans, LA 70117. For more information about the market, you can visit www.strochmarket.com.