[sirkingwilliam]

This will be across from the planned 500,000 sq ft. outlet center.

Southwest Side to get giant flea market

By Creighton A. Welch - Express-News


In terms of Texas flea markets, Traders Village in Grand Prairie and Houston are two of the most popular, drawing a combined 5 million people a year.

Now, the company is opening a store in San Antonio.

Traders Village bought 290 acres of undeveloped land for an undisclosed price at Old Pearsall Road and Loop 410 on the city's Southwest Side to create a festival-like flea market that it hopes will attract thousands of vendors and millions of shoppers each year.

Traders Village is pegging this as more of an entertainment venue than just a place to shop. It will be able to host festivals, gatherings and concerts and even will have an RV park and, someday, cabins.

“You can spend the day shopping, enjoying everything from corn dogs to Thai food and then enjoy some entertainment,” said Mike Baxter, marketing director for Traders Village.

The company plans to break ground in six months and to open the market in mid-2010.

San Antonio has several flea markets that offer live music, food and other events, but Traders Village will offer it all on a larger scale.

The first phase of Traders Village will hold up to 1,200 vendors, about the size of the Houston market. But the company plans to expand to more than 3,000 vendors in the future, the size of its Grand Prairie shops. It will have several large expo buildings as well.

Though flea markets don't pack all the glitz and glam of other retail, they actually are faring well in the recession. Baxter said 2008 was a record year for Traders Village.

“We're finding that the economy is doing very well for flea markets all over the country,” Baxter said. “2009 could be another record breaker because people not only are looking for bargains, but they're looking for money, so they come out and sell.”

Some of San Antonio's flea markets share the same sentiment.

“You can tell right now with the economy that people are going back to the basics,” said Joel Dauley, owner of the 46-acre Mission Open Air Market at Moursund Boulevard and Loop 410 on the South Side.

Dauley's father founded the market, which draws 25,000 to 30,000 shoppers each week, in 1973. The market doesn't have concerts, but does attract events such as blood drives and raffles, and offers food and other concessions.

“That flea market thing is just a tag,” Dauley said. “These are really blooming markets.”

Pan Am Plaza Inc. at Interstate 35 and West Southcross Boulevard is a smaller market, attracting about 800 people on a weekend day, but it, too, is busy.

“Business has been great,” owner A. Salazar said. “Busier than a cat on a tin roof.”

Salazar allows his vendors to host bingo night or raffles, and he rents out a ballroom for dances and quinceañeras.

Not all flea markets have been successful here, though. Roam Open Air Market near New Braunfels shut down in November 2002 after just 14 months. The owners attributed it to a flawed business strategy — the former owner said in a San Antonio Express-News article that it should have been open once a month instead of every weekend.

Bad timing might have had something to do with it as well. The market opened just four days after the Sept. 11 attacks. And the 50-acre site was just a few miles from Bussey's Flea Market, which opened in 1978 and attracts about 15,000 visitors each weekend.

Although Roam failed, local flea market operators seem to think there's enough demand for another shop in town. “Of the flea markets here in town, I guess we're all doing pretty good,” Salazar said.

If I had to guess, I'd say this flea market would be on the southwest corner while the outlet would be on the northeast corner.