For five years, vagrants and vandals occupied the largest vacant space in the Ritchie Highway Shopping Center. But tomorrow a 30,000-square-foot flea market will open, marking another effort to revitalize the 40-year-old strip mall.
Four local entrepreneurs hope to turn the former dilapidated space with graffiti-covered walls and broken windows into a bargain-hunter's dream. Vendors have rented nearly all the 230 tables and 25 booths for this weekend's grand opening.
"We want people to come in here and find good bargains," said Joel Freeman, 40, one of the investors in the Ritchie Highway Flea Market. "It's not going to be all new stuff, but some used stuff, too."
For shoppers' convenience, a food court and children's rides will be set up in the back of the store, he said.
Yesterday, the investors still were finishing wiring, sanding booths and painting floors as they waited for county inspectors to make their final tour late in the afternoon.
If all goes well, the indoor market will be open every weekend from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The partners looked at about 20 sites in and around Anne Arundel County, then signed a six-month lease for the shopping center space because of its location just inside the Beltway in a heavily traveled area, Mr. Freeman said.
Merchants in the Brooklyn shopping center said they were glad to see the vacancy filled, but wondered how much more business it would bring. "I hope it'll make a difference. It's only going to be open on the weekend. So who knows," said John Petrecca, a barber at Jim's Shears Experience. "Anything is better than nothing."
Mr. Petrecca said he'd like to see another restaurant in the mall. The closing of the White Coffee Pot last year created a dent in his business.
"We miss the White Coffee Pot," Mr. Petrecca said. "Customers in the morning used to look across the street and see an empty chair."
Other merchants hoped the flea market wouldn't be another Tradersmart, a business several miles down Ritchie Highway that closed a year after it opened.
In October 1993, the county shut down the 80,000-square-foot flea market in the Beltway Crossing shopping center because it violated building and fire codes.
Merchants hope the owners of this flea market are more careful.
"It's going to help the community, but if it's a fly-by-night business, it's going to hurt the community," said Frank Rosso, Jr., the owner of Rosso Music.
One improvement the market has brought already is that management has confirmed its plans to renovate the rest of the mall. Over the summer the north side got a face lift with a new roof, lighted canopies and repaired sidewalks. Plans to fix up the south side had been put on hold until more tenants could be found.
With the opening of the flea market, renovation of the south side will begin in the spring, according to Charles Mason, vice president of Rucker Enterprises Inc., the McLean, Va., group that manages the center. "The center is going to be in very, very good shape by midsummer of 1995," he said.
The flea market space, which once had been occupied by Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Mr. Goodbuys, had been kept empty for five years because the management company planned to tear down the south side to make way for a larger Basics store, which was to move from its north side location, Mr. Mason said.
The move fell through, leaving the south side largely empty, except for a bank and a Woolworth's.