Aqueduct flea market needs new venue

There will be no 11th hour negotiations for the vendors of the Aqueduct Flea Market.
The flea market operator, Plain & Fancy Shows, Inc., has been informed by Genting New York that the contract permitting the operation of a flea market at Aqueduct will not be renewed after the contract’s December 21 expiration date.
“Having heard from the vendors that they wanted an answer quickly in order to make their future plans, Resorts World New York expedited its review process,” said a spokesperson. “Since the Aqueduct facility will be a construction site for several months, the Division of the Lottery determined that the continued presence of the flea market would raise safety concerns in addition to being incompatible with the future use of the property.”
Although the contract expires on December 21, the flea market operators will be allowed to continue to sell their merchandise through the holidays, until December 31.
When Genting broke ground at Aqueduct in early November, flea market vendors staged a rally at the front gates to raise awareness of their plight. At that time, the vendors at the rally were upset that no one had given them any straight answers about their future at Aqueduct.
“We have to know what we are going to do if we are not allowed back,” said N.F.N. Sewdat, a Sno-Cone vendor at the rally. “This is our life. We are dying.”
According to vendors at the rally, the flea market holds 1,100 vendors and employs about 5,000 people three days per week.
Many of the vendors will now look to their local elected leaders, who at the time pledged to help the vendors find a new site for the flea market if their contract wasn’t renewed.
Queens Borough President Helen Marshall said that Genting’s decision not to renew the contract is understandable, but unfortunate. For her, the focus must now be on finding a new site to host the market.
“It was very upsetting to see them out front at the groundbreaking. I feel for them,” she said. “They deserve to be relocated and we are going to find them a site.”
Plain & Fancy Shows, Inc. chose not to comment by press time.