City leaders met with architects and a vendor representative this morning to look for ways to renovate the historic Roanoke City Market building while keeping tenants in the food court from going out of business.

The latest proposal involves a phased renovation that would close the food court for six to eight months.

That’s more than the three or four months requested by vendors, but well short of initial plans to close the entire building for 12 to 18 months.

According to Anita Wilson, who co-owns Burger in the Square and attended the meeting on behalf of vendors, representatives from Cunningham Quill Architects of Washington, D.C., said the phased renovation would add about 50 percent to the cost, which had previously been budgeted at $5.7 million.

Councilman David Trinkle said after the meeting that he’s got another idea for keeping vendors in business during the closure, which would involve tweaking city laws to allow them to operate from street carts, preferably in a regular location in the downtown Market area.

Trinkle ruled out a previously mentioned idea to place vendors in one of downtown’s empty storefronts, such as the old Heironimus building on Jefferson Street.

“It’s too expensive to relocate them to a building without hoods, vents and all the safety stuff,” including sprinkler systems, Trinkle said.

Cunningham Quill representatives will meet with vendors in the Market building today at 3:30 p.m. That meeting is open to the public.