Ed Rieker with the owners the Market in Avondale. Source: https://www.facebook.com/aetudorsquare

The owner of The Market in Avondale had planned to open this month in Avondale’s Tudor Square building, but a dispute over a building permit has delayed the project.

The Market will take over the former Thumbs Up Diner space. The Tudor Square building is owned by Avondale Mayor Ed Rieker, who purchased the space in 2013.

On Sept. 23, The Market posted about the building permit on its Facebook page, saying, “Denied on our building permit, argh:-(”

Owner Nicole Turner told Decaturish on Sept. 30 that everything had been sorted out. The dispute arose because the contractor that handles the city’s permitting insisted that The Market is a restaurant.

“They contract out the architectural and engineering people who approve our plans, and they apparently don’t know what they’re doing, because they kept arguing with me about how it was going to be a restaurant, and I’m trying to explain that it’s a grocery store,” Turner said. “So they denied my plans. But I’ve been informed today that I have a meeting set in the morning at 9:30 and they are going to give me my building permit.”

She said community members bombarded the city with messages after her Facebook post in support of her permit.

“We are back on track,” Turner said. “We’re hopefully going to start some stuff tomorrow.”

She said the building has already been gutted and she has been waiting on the building permit to start renovating the space. That has pushed back the opening of her business by a couple of months, she said.

“I’m going to hope and pray for mid-November,” Turner said. “I want to be open for the holidays. It’s really important.”

Turner also corrected some earlier misinformation about The Market in Avondale. The city announced in July that the owners of the market had signed a lease with Mayor Rieker. The city’s announcement said “the owners of Decatur’s Oak Grove Market signed a lease to open a second shop.” The Tudor Square Facebook page also said, “Same owners as Oak Grove, same great meat, deli and food. Different name.” This information is no longer on the Tudor Square Facebook page.

Turner said that she is married to one of the owners of Oak Grove Market, but The Market in Avondale is not affiliated with that company.

“This is something I came out and did on my own,” Turner said.