After receiving word in September that they were being evicted effective March 2013 from the Orange County Fairgrounds, a year after the state of California attempted to take possession of the property, the operators of the Orange County Market Place have begun to fight back to convince the Fairgrounds Board of Directors to change their decision and allow the popular swap meet to continue.
“For 42 years the Orange County Market Place has been an incubator of business in Orange County and it’s sad that political appointees can be so callous and have the power to put thousands of hard-working business owners and their families out of work because their effort to take over the fairgrounds failed,” said Jeff Teller, owner of the Orange County Market Place. “In the end, we believe in America and we are confident that justice will prevail.”
Market Place Urges Board to Reconsider Decision
This week, the attorney for the Orange County Market Place sent a letter to the Board asking them to reconsider the resolution to terminate the lease, arguing that the decision was politicized and based on false premises about the financial performance of the market, according to a report in the Daily Pilot. Teller said he believes there are a number of members of the board, which voted 6 to 3 to terminate, who will eventually do what is right and allow the swap meet to continue, noting that revenue has increased 4% this year. “We’ve gone through 42 years of cycles,” Teller said. “When we’ve prospered, the [fairgrounds] have prospered.”
If they do not change their mind, the board intends to keep a flea market on the site, and will be looking for proposals from other contractors interested in running a new swap meet there.
In the meantime, the Orange County Market Place remains open for business Saturdays and Sundays from 7 am to 4 pm, and the fair’s website urges visitors to continue to shop and support the nearly 1,000 vendors at the market. Admission is $2. For more information, email info@ocmarketplace.com.