Vendors forced to vacate Opa-locka Hialeah market by June 30 decry their treatment by management
a week ago, the management of the famous Opa-locka Hialeah Flea Market informed its tenants that they had to leave by June 30, a month’s notice that the merchants consider “unfair and inhumane.”
The merchants explained to el Nuevo Herald that although the notice says that the doors will be open until June 30, that does not apply to customers.
Starting June 20, only owners and workers will be able to enter to pack, in 10 days, decades of work.
According to people who work in the market, they are requesting an extension of time and a rent exemption to save for a new place to move their businesses.
Most tenants stopped paying rent, which typically is collected every Sunday. The fees vary based on size and location, ranging from approximately $250 to over $500 per week.
Blanca Marín, a 59-yearold Nicaraguan, has spent 21 years selling hygiene products at the flea market.
“I don’t want to protest. I’m sure nothing new is going to happen, no extension of time or exemption from rent,” she said. But she denounced management’s plan to lock the doors of her business and close it permanently if she doesn’t pay the required $450 per week.
Unlike most of the merchants, Marín has a place to go. She has another business on Miramar Parkway, where she will take the things that remain after her current clearance sale.
El Nuevo Herald tried to obtain management’s explanation of what will happen to stores that don’t pay, but it refused to comment.
Cilia “Cici” Luis, 78, has been in the Opa-locka Hialeah flea market for 40 years. She has had her craft store open almost as long as she has been living in MiaJust mi (52 years) after coming from Haiti. She pays $259 for the place, and when she leaves it, she says she will work from her home, selling what is left of her products.
Another vendor who identified himself only as Juan, 83, said this means it is time to retire. He once had up to eight stands in this market, but currently has two, one that he uses as a warehouse and another in which he exhibits men’s sportswear.
He plans to go to Cuba two or three times to sell his remaining clothes.
Although he does not have an estimate of how much money he has invested in merchandise, he said “they didn’t give us time to move.
“What they are doing with us is unfair. I have been in this market for 40 years and this is how they pay us.”
Claribel Vázquez, a Dominican who has lived in Miami since she was 19, has been selling natural juices in the flea market for two years.
“The flea market is Miami heritage,” she said. “A united people work here. Most of them have been here for 40 years and now they tell us that in 20 days they will close our doors, that we have to leave.
“What can we do with all our products, with all our freezers, with all this equipment?
“Where do we put them in 20 days? Out there, rent is very expensive. We are humble people. Humble people come here to buy their vegetables, because here everything costs half of what it’s sold in the supermarket.
“Tourism will also be affected,” Vázquez continued. “When the schools close, the flea market is filled with tourists.
“What’s going to happen to those local and regional tourists who come from North Carolina, Georgia, Tampa, Orlando to enjoy
our weather? Where are the Miami-Dade commissioners who say nothing about the loss of that tourism?”
Juan Rivera, a sexagenarian who has been working in the market for 14 years selling appliances, said the eviction “is not inhumane, it’s criminal. They should have given people at least six months to move.
“Most people are not going to find a place to move and with this merchandise, what are they going to do?”
A saleswoman of Haitian origin, who has been in this country for 40 years and preferred not to reveal her name, explained that she has more than 2,000 shoes in inventory. She doesn’t have a place to move and doesn’t know what she will do, but for now she is trying to sell as much as possible by June 20.
The flea market was purchased in 2017 by Gramercy Property Trust, in an $80 million acquisition. The deal included the 43.8acre flea market at 12691 and 12705 Northwest 42nd Avenue and the 28.3-acre Insurance Auto Auctions property at 12700 Northwest Le Jeune Road.
Open 365 days a year for more than 40 years, the Opa-locka Hialeah Flea Market has consistently received more than 30,000 visitors per week, according to its website.