Canton flea market to reopen Saturday — for now

I was out sick yesterday, so I missed this story about the ongoing saga that is the Canton Flea Market in University Plaza. As you may know it’s been closed since July 26, after a fairly strange parting of ways between the market’s owner and the owner of the University Plaza. Last week the market’s vendors made a plan to deal directly with the plaza’s owner, David Muraco, and here our story resumes.

I’ll keep it quick: In a nutshell, a group of vendors from the market plan to reopen in its current spot on Saturday, with the owners of Grandma’s Kids in charge (as planned), and under a new name, “Classy Collectibles.” This according to the Watertown Daily Times. By the way, I drove past this morning and the main change in the appearance of the plaza so far is that the parking lot is being resurfaced.

Since Muraco’s not guaranteeing them their space after the end of the year, the vendors are looking for a new permanent home. One place they’ve explored is the Midtown Plaza on Miner Street (in the space that used to house the Jubilee grocery store.)

Local residents and thrifty people may be aware that this shopping plaza is already home to another flea market, which opened in May (here’s a piece NCPR did on the grand opening). But Canton Economic Development Director Linda McQuinn told the paper she doesn’t think that’s a problem: “I don’t think you’d have duplication. I think you’d have greater variety,” McQuinn said. “Commerce and competition go hand in hand. Any time you have an opportunity for commerce downtown it’s a good thing.”

There’s some talk of mixing a more traditional retail business with some flea market booths in a new space, as well. But the owner of the Midtown Plaza has said he won’t be able to offer the low rent vendors are receiving at University Plaza, because there’s a lot of work that needs to be done on the building. So (as always) we’ll see what happens.

Tags: business, canton, economy, flea market, st lawrence county