Work is underway at the Brownsville Cannery Public Market at the Mitte Cultural District where vendors and shoppers will be able to sell and shop for vegetables and other goods year-round.
The indoor market located at the old Gutierrez “Warehouse by the Zoo” will serve as the permanent home for the Brownsville Farmers Market. Among the Cannery’s amenities will be a commercial-grade community kitchen available to aspiring, food-based entrepreneurs. In addition, it will serve as the local headquarters of Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley Inc.
Dr. Rose M.Z. Gowen, Commissioner At-Large “B”, posted on her Facebook page of the news that work had begun on cannery.
“Machines present and working, workers in action…..attention!! The Cannery Market has officially begun! Thank you City of Brownsville and the many many partners bringing the Market to life! Stay tuned!!,” she posted June 22.
Gowen on Tuesday said she was excited to see the trucks out at the work site that the city and other organizations had been working on for a while.
“It’s very exciting to see that every step that happens is a step closer to reality, and so to see the trucks out there and hear the tractors working and to see them clearing and all that, it is very rewarding to see it actually start to come to fruition and exciting to think about the potentials for the future,” she said.
The cannery will be air-conditioned allowing vendors to sell their goods and the public to buy their products year-round.
“It means that during cold weather we don’t have to cancel the market, during the rain we don’t all have to run for cover…it allows the market to really be year-round without having to worry about the weather,” Gowen said.
The Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Commerce Department in September 2021 announced a $700,000 grant to transform the derelict warehouse in the Mitte Cultural District into the Cannery Public Market.
The EDA grant is being matched by $1.1 million in local investment, including $500,000 the Valley Baptist Legacy Foundation pledged in 2019. The city of Brownsville and the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit No Kid Hungry have kicked in $250,000 and $300,000, respectively, toward the $1.9 million Cannery project located at the corner of East 6th and East Ringgold streets.
Also, the Mitte Foundation, which has launched its own $2.2 million makeover of the Mitte Cultural District, has committed an unspecified amount of money to help build restrooms for the Cannery project.
The Brownsville Farmers’ Market is run by the Brownsville Wellness Coalition. Currently the market is held on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon in Linear Park. Veronica Dimas, executive director of the BWC, said knowing that work has started on the cannery is exciting news to everyone involved.
“We are truly excited and grateful on the opportunity given the circumstances of construction right now, given the delays…we are excited, the contractors, architects and everyone in place is just as excited to see this project that has been a longtime coming to move forward for the benefit of the community,” Dimas said.
Dimas said the cannery is not only going to help entrepreneurs but will also impact the entire community providing fresh produce to the public.
“It’s something that I’ve been looking forward to, something the community has been looking forward to, it’s a project that has been talked about for many years and we are excited and so grateful for all of our funders and the city of Brownsville, especially the city of Brownsville supporting the project,” Dimas said.
It’s anticipated that completion on the cannery project will be in spring 2023.
