City okays big Missouri flea market launch in two weeks

On Aug. 31, the City Council of St. Charles, Mo., voted to allow the launch of a new flea market on Truman Blvd. (corrected, see below), one half mile south of Exit 2 off Highway 370. “We got our approval just last night,” says market developer Jim Zavradinos, speaking with FleaMarketZone yesterday. “We’re underway!”

The Truman Markets project faces a short timetable to get ready for its Sept. 17 opening. “We have to finish up the rock and the pavement, the electrical, the tents, the portable toilets, the office, the Internet, and stuff like that,” says Zavradinos, “And we should be able to get it done.”

The market is not what he originally planned for the property. Zavradinos had expected to develop the land for commercial use. “It was going to be an industrial park,” he says, mentioning office warehouse, retail, some service, storage, and so on. “It is well located, and there are other neighboring industrial developments, but after the economy turned — unfortunately very shortly after we purchased the property — as with other developers, we’ve been struggling,” he says.

“After the past two years that we’ve been struggling with the business center part of it, we realized that we had to think outside of the box, and do something,” Zavradinos says, “or otherwise the project was going to fail.”

Though he has been a flea market fan, he never thought of opening one. “But a little over two months ago, one of my partners came up to me and said, ‘Hey, why don’t you do a flea market on that property,’ ” as Zavradinos recounts. “The flea market was definitely thinking outside the box.”

That timetable has been an exceptional one. “We will have started and opened this entire flea market concept in a matter of 11 weeks,” he says. “It’s a need that is not being well taken care of in this area, and so far the reception has just been phenomenal.”

Given the pace of the start, Zavradinos does not have anything special planned for his opening day — other than to open. “We’re not doing anything really special,” he says. “We’ll be adding new things continuously after that. It’s enough work just to get open, much less try to have a special event. That will come after.”

He is planning a free raffle ticket drawing every weekend for five $20 “Truman Bucks” coupons that will be sent to the winning numbers., announced each Tuesday online. “They’ll be able to use that $20 at their next visit to Truman Markets.” Also in the works: a haunted house at Halloween and a Christmas tent.

The market’s first season will end Jan. 2, 2011, and the market will reopen March 12. But the next big development phase of the project will be a permanent five-sided building, called “the Pentagon,” a 115,000-square-foot building with a 150,000-square-foot courtyard. After that, the flea market will likely be open every day.

There is one possible hurdle to surmount. The property has been caught up in a lawsuit being brought by an environmental group, the Great Rivers Habitat Alliance, against the city of St. Charles over land development and tax abatements. Could that affect the flea market? “I guess it possibly could,” says Zavradinos, “but we are extremely confident that we will prevail.” The Great Rivers Habitat Alliance did not return a call from FleaMarketZone asking for comment.

Regarding the I-70 Shoppers Fair, another flea market currently being developed a mile away, Zavradinos was upbeat. “It is still going to work. There is room for both of us. They are doing things differently. We’ll probably be feeding off of each other.”

Truman Markets is still looking for vendors, too. “We’re at 40-something vendors right now,” he says. “I’d love to be at 100 on opening day, but that’s being optimistic. We’ll have over 300 booths for this season once we get all the tents up. We’re starting with three tents, and we have a total of eight.” Spaces range from $15 to $45 per day, depending on size and adjacent parking. According to Zavradinos, “We want to create what vendors are looking for.”

For more information, contact the flea market at trumanmarkets.com, call (636) 352-1199, or e-mail becky@trumanmarkets.com or jimmyzee@trumanmarkets.com or gail@trumanmarkets.com. Truman Markets will be open 11:00 am to 7:00 pm Fridays, and 7am to 5 pm Saturdays, Sundays and holiday Mondays.

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Sept. 7 Update: Check out this recent news account of the Truman Markets.

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Sept. 13 Update: Thanks to a commenter (see below) for pointing out a mistake in placing the market. It is on Truman Road, NOT Old Highway 94.