Vendors from old Eastland Mall site remain in limbo as city leaders look for permanent location

CHARLOTTE — More than 100 vendors with the Central Flea Market that was in east Charlotte are still in a state of limbo. Many of them say they didn’t participate in the market organized this past Saturday by a group of Republican Charlotte city council candidates. There are questions now about whether there will be a permanent solution.

Jorge Castraneda says he was having no issues selling fruit at east Charlotte’s former Central Flea Market. But, it’s been seven months since more than 100 other vendors lost the place where they could sell their products.

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“We want it to happen as soon as possible because we cannot keep going with this situation in a long term,” Castraneda said. “There has to be a solution.”

However, he told Channel 9 the temporary market on Saturday in uptown wasn’t the right solution now.

“It was too suddenly put on the news,” Castraneda said. “I chose not to go because it is difficult to build clients from zero again.”

He says he worried about his customers getting confused by a one-time location.

“Our customers don’t know where to find us,” Castraneda said.

Open-air market Vendors set up at a temporary market location in uptown.

During a news conference last week, Charlotte City Councilman Tariq Bokhari said he and other Republican candidates running in the next election were working with vendors to find a permanent location for the flea market and that “viable options were on the table.”

“They will have a consistent ability to make money every weekend until we get them in their home,” Bokhari said regarding the temporary location held in a parking lot near Romare Bearden Park.

Most of the Central Flea Market vendors did not take Bokhari up on his offer and passed on participating in the temporary market.

“To our knowledge, none of the ones associated with the Central Flea Market but we did make it clear to everyone they were welcome to participate and that there would be no hard feelings,” said Hector Vaca, with Action NC, one of the groups advocating for the vendors. “We wanted to make sure that we were setting the record straight: That the event that would be held Saturday was done without the consent of the vendors.”

He says they felt they weren’t included in the planning and only learned of last week’s announcement hours before it happened.

“It would confuse our customers having only a one-time location. What they’re looking is a permanent solution. We made that clear,” Vaca added.

So, vendors, including Castraneda, continue to wait for a way to once again make a living, which is something city leaders have been promising for months.

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“Not only are we waiting for the council members to move on this, but we’re also working with the Charlotte city council on ideas, and as of this week we’re talking to other partners,” he said.

We reached out to councilman Bokhari for his response. We have not heard back from him yet.

(Watch the video below: Open-air market vendors get temporary spot after being forced out of old Eastland Mall site)

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