Reopening of Seaside’s Mi Tierra has been delayed by what is almost an archaeological dig.

When Mi Tierra market shut down for renovations last August, the plan was to reopen the beloved Seaside institution sometime this spring. But due to unforeseen setbacks related to the building’s age, the reopening date has been delayed indefinitely. At best, it will be sometime late summer – a year after it closed.

Oswaldo Mesia, the architect managing the remodel, says the project is still in the demolition phase, and that work is moving slowly. Under normal circumstances, he says, there would have been some exploratory work done before renovations began in full. But because the project required first doing asbestos abatement, nothing could be opened up until it was remediated – so workers went into the project blind, not knowing what lay beneath the asbestos-laden flooring.

And what workers found once things were opened up is that the concrete beneath is so uneven – “super irregular,” Mesia says – that it is “complicated” to use concrete saws, which require a flat surface or the blade might snap. And even then, because of the way the underground rebar structure was laid out, it’s not as simple as cutting in a straight line to realign the underground utilities – an errant saw might cut through rebar and compromise the building’s structural integrity.

“It’s complicated. Normally we just go and trench in a week,” Mesia says, then adds: “Messing up the existing structure would be a big, expensive fix.”

The good news for fans of Mi Tierra (home to a market and an outstanding taqueria), is that when the remodel is finally completed, it should be better than ever. For now, those fans will have to wait.