Randolph Street Market is back — in Michigan
After losing last summer to a pandemic, anyone itching to browse the wares offered by vendors at Chicago’s longstanding Randolph Street Market will have to make a road trip.
The reason why boils down to one word synonymous with the Fulton Market district these days: construction.
The 18-year-old market is moving to Three Oaks, Michigan, for the next few months while its Chicago home, the Plumbers Hall at 1341 W. Randolph St., becomes a construction zone.
The Plumbers Local 130 union is set to build a seven-story, 500-space parking garage on the parking lot alongside the Plumbers Hall building. Over the past several years, the large surface lot has become outdoor space in the spring and summer for the event once known as the Chicago Antique Market.
During the construction, the Randolph Street Market’s home furnishings, clothing, jewelry, art, books and other goods — as well as its food, drinks and music — are headed to Michigan’s Harbor Country, starting with Memorial Day weekend.
Two-day shows also are scheduled for June, July, August and September.
The hope is to return to Chicago as soon as holiday events this winter, depending on the construction progress, and by no later than next spring, market co-founder Sally Schwartz said.
“I thought I was out of business last year,” Schwartz said. “After 18 years, I was ready to be done with it. I was tired.”
Time away during the shutdown changed her perspective, Schwartz said.
“It was nice to have a breather,” Schwartz said. “Chicago is a very frustrating place to try to do business, but it’s still a great city and I love it. I will never leave Chicago. It’s called the Randolph Street
Market for a reason.”
The antique market’s hiatus is the latest change in an area of the city once dominated by meatpackers and food distributors.
Low-rise brick buildings have given way in recent years to construction cranes as the area just west of the Kennedy Expressway has welcomed residential high-rises, hip hotels and major office tenants such as McDonald’s and Google.
Increased density has helped boost crowds for neighborhood stalwarts such as the antique market, but increased traffic and insufficient parking have added headaches for vendors and customers, she said.
Metered spaces nearby have made it difficult for vendors to park their trucks during events, she said.
“I’m thrilled because parking has been a huge problem with the neighborhood becoming so populated,” Schwartz said of the planned parking garage.
The market’s layout in Chicago will mostly remain the same after the parking structure is completed, although some vendors will set up on ground-level garage space rather than in tents, she said.
The market called off its 2020 season because of the public health crisis, which also pushed the construction project into the current year.
That led Schwartz to pursue her yearslong goal of bringing the market to Michigan. But for this year it will be as a replacement for Chicago’s schedule rather than a complement to it.
Schwartz said in future years she wants to schedule events at the Michigan and Chicago markets on back-to-back weekends, giving faraway vendors the chance to sell their wares from both locations on a single trip to the Midwest.
“Next year, 2022, we would expect tourism to be back in Chicago,” Schwartz said. “We need the tourists.
“I hope people don’t take events like ours for granted. We all lost a lot of money last year, and we’re all desperate for business.”