Will a newly proposed home rescue vendors?
3.5-acre public urban market part of plan to redevelop site of current swap meet
San Jose’s historic 61-year-old Flea Market will have a new home built near the city’s Berryessa BART station to keep longtime vendors from being displaced when a massive proposed development is constructed on the current site under a new agreement reached by San Jose leaders and market owners.
Still, some worry that the proposed 3.5-acre public urban market set to be built in the coming years as part of the redevelopment of the current flea market site will not be enough to save the vast majority of more than 750 vendors who rely on the market to sell their goods.
The Berryessa Flea Market Vendors Association — a newly formed advocacy group representing vendors — also argues that the deal fails to address a list of demands they gave to the property owners, including maintaining the same cost of rent on stalls, allowing the new market to be run by the association rather than the current flea market owners and economic relief for vendors if business operations are interrupted while the new market is built.
“I recognize that progress is being made, but it’s just not enough,” said Roberto Gonzalez, 29, president of the vendor association who grew up working at his family’s stall. “Our fight continues and we’re going to keep going until every member is accounted for.”
In the time since George Bumb Sr. founded the San Jose Flea Market in 1960, it grew to become one of the nation’s largest ongoing outdoor markets, attracting upward of 4 million visitors a year. The lively swap meet has not only served as a tourist attraction for visitors looking for a bargain but also has given thousands of Bay Area residents — most notably Latinos and immigrants from all over the world — an opportunity to make a living in one of the most expensive regions of the country.
Gonzales, for instance, was raised at the flea market, where his father and half a dozen aunts and uncles all worked. His father, who began working there when he moved to San Jose 30 years ago, opened his own stall in about 2000, selling the Mexican candies and piñatas, which served as the family’s sole source of income.
The announcement of the new public market comes just one week before the city’s Planning Commission is slated to consider whether to endorse the flea market’s rezoning, which would pave the way for a massive development that could hold up to 3.4 million square feet of office space, 3,450 residential units, nearly a mile of creek trails along Penitencia and Coyote creeks and a new neighborhood park. The commission delayed a vote on the matter in March and asked city officials to come back after exploring a community benefits agreement between flea market vendors and developers.
The north side of the original 120-acre flea market site already has been developed and these plans would transform 61.5 acres on the south side, where the flea market continues to operate.
Under the updated plan, the public urban market would be a permanent feature of the central plaza within the flea market site’s redevelopment plans. The owners plan to model the new open-air market after successful and vibrant ones in Europe and Asia.
In a news release released May 4, the Bumb family, owners and operators of the flea market, said the new urban public market would be “a tremendous asset” for vendors and to the community at large.
“It will also be awesome to see a new version and the continued legacy of The San Jose Flea Market,” Brian Bumb said in the release.
Erik Schoennauer, a land-use lobbyist representing the Bumb family, said that he and the owners listened to input from City Council member David Cohen, the city’s Planning Commission and the vendors, who all persuaded them to include an urban public market into the development plans.
“We met with the vendor association on April 1, and their No. 1 demand was to maintain a marketplace on-site,” he said. “We’re listening and we’re coming up with solutions. This is a great solution.”
The owners have committed to giving a one-year notice of planned significant changes to the current market.
As for how the eventual transition will take place and how vendors will be chosen, Schoennauer said those details we’ll be worked out in the coming months and years as the plans are refined.
The proposed development will be a major piece of the city’s Berryessa BART Urban Village — a blueprint by the city that aims to turn the area around the city’s first BART station into a dense, transit-centered neighborhood that will help the city reduce carbon emissions and cut down on urban sprawl.
The Berryessa Urban Village is set to hold 6.7 million square feet of new office space and 4,814 housing units. Across Berryessa Road, a new retail center — dubbed Market Park — is anchored by a 65,000-square-foot Safeway store, which opened its doors recently.
Cohen, who represents the Berryessa area, said it has been his mission to preserve some element of the flea market on its current site.
In response to concerns that the new public market may only be able to hold a small fraction of the market’s current vendors, Cohen said that he continues to look for other sites within the urban village that could offer additional space for vendors. This isn’t the last part of the process, he said, but it’s a start.
“As we work on the zoning in the next month, I’m excited that we could officially codify the existence of an urban market on the site. It will allow us to ensure that this goes forward and is a part of whatever project goes forward,” he said.
Jimmy Hernandez, who has been selling goods at the flea market for more than 25 years, said he was grateful that the Bumb family and developers were “trying to work something out” with the city and vendors.
“It’s like renting a house. We can’t control what the owner decides to do with it, but I just hope something like this new market works out,” he said. “I know the (Bumb) family is not in a hurry to get rid of it or they would have done it a lot sooner.”
Though Cohen and the owners of the flea market site invited a few vendors like Hernandez to discuss plans for the new market scheme, the vendor association group said they were not asked for their feedback. Gonzalez believes the flea market operators have been using intimidation tactics to discourage vendors from organizing and speaking out against the redevelopment proposals.
Association leaders for weeks had been going stall to stall to inform vendors and their employees of the city’s rezoning plans. But flea market operators informed them that the practice violated policies.