16-04-2025
Ribbon cutting held for grand opening of Center City Market
ALTOONA, Pa. (WTAJ) — After three years of extensive renovations the Blair County Chamber of Commerce welcomed a new, unique business to downtown Altoona on Tuesday.
In what was the former McCory's 5-and-10 Cent Store, which opened 125 years ago, now sits Center City Market. The new business is a unique food-court featuring seven businesses.
'An Italian grocery market, we have a winery, we have the juice shack which is amazing, Philly Pretzel factory and then we have three separate restaurants all having diverse menus of different cultures,' said co-owner of Center City Market Christopher Cook. 'It's a really great mix, you could come one day a week and have something different to eat.'
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Developers Cook and Jeff Long have been working for over three years to transform the building which had been badly damaged by flooding previously. Cook said that before they could begin on the renovations they had to remove over 150 tons of trash and debris. Now the two, along with city officials, said that they hope it can bring some new life to downtown Altoona.
'I am extremely excited to be a part of the revitalization,' Cook said. 'There are so many people down here doing amazing things on 11th and 12th avenues so I'm just happy to be a small part of it.'
Cook said they hope the market brings new opportunities for local entrepreneurs as well, like Andrew Harkins who opened Bowl Station inside of the market along with his wife.
'If you think back about three years ago this building was abandoned,' Harkins said. 'It was flooded. And now we've got people in here and we've got local independent operator businesses. Mom and pop people down here just working in the community and it's working people are here and people are coming out.'
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