PARK SLOPE — The flea market outside P.S. 321 has a new operator who's going to bring back some longtime vendors that left the space when Brooklyn Flea took over.
“It’s going back to its roots, which is what the neighborhood wants and the vendors want and the PTA wants,” said James LaMorte of Metroflea.nyc, the company the Department of Education selected to run the outdoor bazaar in the city-owned space.
LaMorte will open the new market March 12 outside the school at 180 Seventh Ave., between First and Second streets. The market will be open year-round on weekends from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Proceeds from the flea market, which has been a neighborhood fixture for the past three decades, help P.S. 321's PTA pay for art and music enrichment programs.
Vendors at the new version of the market will include Olde Good Things, Pickle Me Pete, and some sellers who were priced out when market powerhouse Brooklyn Flea took over the space in 2013, LaMorte said.
Brooklyn Flea, which ran the market until the fall of 2015, increased the price of booths from $40 to $100, and some longtime vendors left because they couldn't weather the higher fees, LaMorte said. At the new version of the market, vendor booths will start at $50.
Sellers will include some "mom and pop" vendors from the old market who are known just by their first names and what they sell — people such as "Dave Records", Marilyn, who sells antiques, and Larry's Collectibles, LaMorte said.
LaMorte's company Metroflea.NYC (formerly Metro Festival Productions) also runs outdoor shopping spots in Little Italy, the West Village, and at St. Anthony's Church in Soho.
Vendors interested in renting spots at the new market outside P.S. 321 can check out the space during an open house on March 5 and 6, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, see Metroflea.NYC.
