Utica retail plaza won’t be ready by Burgoo

The Market on Mill retail plaza in Utica is progressing nicely – but the project won’t be finished in time for this weekend’s Burgoo Festival.

Utica Village President David Stewart confirmed Tuesday the project won’t meet his fingers-crossed goal but nonetheless will be finished in “the very near future.”

“The Market On Mill continues to progress very well,” Stewart said in a statement. “When we originally broke ground we had targeted a completion around the time of Burgoo. The retail plaza will not be finished by Burgoo but is really taking shape.

“When you are doing a project like this, many factors come into play. This is a very detail-oriented project and the Village of Utica wants to make sure everything is done correctly and not rushed. We hope to put the buildings in place as early as next week.”

While a Burgoo opening would have been ideal – the festival is the village’s single-biggest draw and a reliable moneymaker – village officials were uncertain of meeting that target.

The first round of bids arrived in May and came in much higher than forecast. It was mid-June before the village tweaked its bid specifications and awarded a contract just north of $1.8 million. That left the village with less than 120 days for construction.

The good news is the Market on Mill could be completed well before the holiday shopping season begins and help Utica finish the year with banner retail sales.

The village posted best-ever sales months between March and June of 2024. If the Market on Mill boosts the November-December totals then could help smash the village’s record 2023 sales, which netted the village $600,000.

The area north of Church Street sits in a flood plain that has deterred brick-and-mortar construction. Utica officials brainstormed a solution and decided to build an open-air shopping venue, with portable retail stalls, modeled after Batavia and Muskegon, Michigan.