HARRISBURG, Pa. — Editor's note: The above video is from July 10.
The City of Harrisburg continues to work towards getting the Broad Street Market fully back up and running after it was devastated by a fire just over a year ago.
Over the next few days, TLC Construction will complete selective interior demolition of the less-damaged portion of the structure, which is the part closest to the stone building. Anything that displaced vendors marked for saving will be salvaged, the City said.
"They're going to be removing any remaining shelving, counters, carpet ceramics, any existing insulation," City spokesperson Matt Maisel said. "They're going to be going piece by piece and making sure that area in the front--that is the bones of it--which we believe to be salvageable, they're basically going to gut it so it will be bare bones."
Harrisburg mayor Wanda R.D. Williams signed an emergency declaration on July 23 after a rat infestation was discovered inside the building, making it a public health emergency.
"Once you see a large infestation of rats, that means we have to act now; we cannot wait any further," Maisel said. "That was enough for the mayor to declare an emergency for the area, which was allowed to bypass a lot of the red tape."
Officials had tried to get an emergency declaration signed before but say they were told the situation didn't rise to the level of needing one.
"Not every fire reaches emergency declaration status," Maisel said. "We pushed for it a lot harder once we saw the potential for a health situation."
The City of Harrisburg is also searching for an architect to lead design and reconstruction efforts. The request for proposal window closes at the end of the day on Aug. 14.
Maisel says officials hope to have construction on the Market finished by the winter of 2026 or early 2027.
For more information on the current phase of the rebuild, click here.