Vendors left scrambling after city closes open-air flea market at old Eastland Mall site
A group of vendors who sell everything from exotic produce to toothpaste at an open air market at the former Eastland Mall site need to find a new home.
City of Charlotte staff along with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officers went to the site off Central Avenue in east Charlotte late last Friday afternoon. They told vendors who were setting up for the weekend they had to leave immediately and could no longer be on the property, according to interviews with nine vendors and an email shared with City Council this week.
In the fall, the city ended a lease agreement with the market operator that allowed vendors to sell on the site, in anticipation of construction starting on a mixed-use development. The city last week also cited other issues tied to the market, including food trucks selling food without proper licenses.
The vendors were caught by surprise to see police officers blocking off the entrances to the massive, vacant, city-owned site.
Through an attorney, the group said they reached out to the city two weeks ago to talk about options for how to relocate nearby. The attorney, Ismaail Qaiyim, said he didn’t get a response until Friday morning, hours before city staff and police showed up.
But the city said it had given plenty of warning.
The lease agreement that allowed the market to operate on a portion of the site expired at the end of September and the city chose not to renew it.
Construction is expected to start soon on the development. In the fall, the city told the market operator the vendors could no longer be on the site and also posted signs where the market operated, spokesman Cory Burkarth told the Observer.
But the vendors continued to operate on the site, up until this past Friday. The vendors, who had recently moved up to another part of the property to sell their goods, said the city only gave verbal notices to a few people on site, and no written, formal notice.
Concerns about the flea market
The city’s move to send staff and police to the site Friday comes after other issues cropped up, including the arrest last week of a vendor for selling firearms, according to an email sent to City Council.
The county health department also learned that several food trucks were selling food without proper licenses, the email states.
Charlotte bought the vacant 80-acre property, once a bustling mall with a signature indoor ice-skating rink, in 2012. In 2020, City Council unanimously approved a rezoning petition from developer Crosland Southeast to transform the site into a mixed-use hub, with 1,050 homes, shops, restaurants, offices and a 2-acre public park.
Attempts to reach Crosland Southeast were unsuccessful.
A way to earn cash
The city viewed the market as a great way to serve the vendors and utilize an otherwise vacant piece of land, Burkarth said.
The vendors, many of them Spanish-speaking, set up on weekends on the massive parking lot along Central Avenue for the past seven years. Known as the Central Flea Market, or the Open Air Flea Market, vendors sell everything from tacos and exotic produce to household goods like paper towels and clothes.
It’s been an affordable option for many residents around east Charlotte, especially during the COVID pandemic. It also helped sustain many families as a way to make extra cash, vendors told the Observer.
Ivis Suarez is one of the vendors. On some days, Suarez is among nearly 200 people selling goods there.
She sold women’s clothes and tools. As a cancer survivor, Suarez can’t work a regular job because she gets too tired, she said through a translator.
While the market job is still an all-day event, Suarez said she could sit while she works. She also has the help of her husband, who works construction, on weekends.
Suarez said she depended on the money she earned from the market to help pay her hospital bills. She also sends $200 to her mom back in Honduras each week to cover expenses from some of her health problems. She’s worried she won’t be able to send more money now.
After the market closed, Suarez, who’s lived in Charlotte since 1997, tried to find another market to sell her things. But she found it was too expensive, about $100 a day to set up. At the Central Avenue market, vendors typically paid about $10 a day for a site.
After learning what happened to the market, Suarez cried and asked the Lord to find everybody a new place to sell.
‘There has to be empathy’
On Monday afternoon, a group of more than 30 vendors showed up outside the city’s Government Center in uptown. Many held signs that said, “We want the city to be on our side,” and that they are asking for help and want a place to work.
Jorge Castaneda, an exotic fruit vendor who said he has operated at the market for about eight years, said it provided a space for racial minority residents to buy specialty goods — like his dragon and passion fruit — that they can’t find at chain grocery stores.
“Let’s go to the flea market and find something different,” he said, quoting the sentiment of customers.
Many vendors are retired or on fixed incomes, and rely on the extra money they make on the weekends to get by, he said. The city has had “no sympathy” for these vendors as the city has not helped them find a new space, Castaneda added.
Burkarth said the vendors had asked the city about other municipal property where they could operate. But Burkarth said there wasn’t any viable site. That was part of the reason the city gave ample notice to vendors, hoping they could find a new site on their own.
The market also has been a refuge during the stress of the pandemic. The outdoor market, Castaneda said, allowed people to come together to shop and eat in a safe outdoor atmosphere.
“People want to go and be in an open space and get the stress out,” he said.
A group of about 15 of the vendors filed into the government center shortly after the City Council’s regular business meeting started. There was no chance to publicly speak but they wanted to make their presence known. “There has to be empathy,” Castaneda said.
Other issues at the market
The city cited other issues at the market, in addition to the lease agreement ending.
Police received a call about a vendor selling guns out of a vehicle about a week ago, according to an email sent to City Council last week.
CMPD learned the vendor traveled to Charlotte from out of state and didn’t have permits to sell firearms and wasn’t collecting proper information for a gun sale, the email says. The vendor was arrested and the guns were confiscated.
In addition to that arrest, Mecklenburg County Health Department learned that several food trucks were selling food on the property without proper licenses, according to the email.
The site is also home to a StarMed Healthcare covid testing site, which will close soon before construction starts.
A skatepark that takes up one corner of the empty parking lot will continue to run until March 3, but the skaters will be asked to remove everything before construction begins, the email states.
Construction barricades and fencing are expected to go up in early March along with more signs alert potential vendors, the email said.
What’s next for the vendors
In interviews, many vendors said they wanted to pay for use of the city-owned site. They felt that if they had better control of the property, they could have worked with the city to prevent a situation like the man getting arrested for selling guns.
A small group of vendors formed a group in the past two to three weeks, meeting each Sunday to talk about a potential new location.
They were pushing for their own lease, said Ingrid Martinez, a vendor who sells things like yarn and knitting needles with her mom and grandma.
The vendors and their attorney don’t dispute the legality of having to leave the property. They are more upset about the way it was handled. Many vendors who prepped food had to throw it away because they were unable to sell it last weekend.
Qaiyim, the principal attorney at Queen City Community Law Firm representing the vendors, said the market was a place for the community. It was a source of sustenance for people who work and shop there.
With a development project proposed for the site, it gets into a broader question playing out across the city, Qaiyim said.
“Who is Charlotte really for?” he said.
Observer reporter Will Wright contributed to this report
This story was originally published February 15, 2022 at 1:48 PM.
