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Cooks Flea Market partially reopens weeks after fire
Part of Cooks Flea Market in Winston-Salem is back open after a fire ripped through one of its buildings earlier this month.
The main building of Cooks Flea Market opened up at 9 a.m. on Saturday.
The state's largest indoor flea market went up in flames two weeks ago, sending a person to the hospital. The fire marshal still isn't sure how the fire started.
The fire began at about 3 p.m. on June 5th, on a day when the flea market was closed to shoppers. The fire occurred in the 35,000-square-foot annex building. That building will remain closed for the time being and the more than 100,000-square-foot main building is set to reopen this Saturday after contractors repaired all the smoke damage in that structure.
The fire marshal officially determined the main building was safe for the public before 3 p.m. on Thursday.
Vendors who normally sold out of the damaged part of the building are being given temporary selling spaces. Some of the vendors who had all of their wares in the annex building will need to wait until that building opens back up before they can begin selling goods again. At this time, it's unclear when the annex building will open back up or when vendors will be able to get their goods from inside of that structure.
Crews and contractors worked in the weeks following the fire to repair smoke damage in the main building in order to open up that more than 100,000-square-foot space to shoppers on Saturday.
“I’m just so grateful to be back at work, doing what I love to do,” said Gregory DeGrafinry, a vendor at Cooks Flea Market.
“Everybody is glad to be back at work. Yeah, everybody is. My neighbors, everybody is glad to be back to make money. We are in business to make money.”
Lincoln Hoffman, Director of Field Operations for Cooks Flea Market
“The market has been here for a really long time. We have 550 selling space in here, approximately 400 separate vendors, each with their own individual businesses. It’s really a staple of the community. This is how a lot of people live their lives and it’s as important to them as it is to us,” said Lincoln Hoffman, the Director of Field Operations for Cooks Flea Market.
Hoffman has not provided a timetable regarding when the 35,000-square-foot annex will open back up.
Cooks Flea Market representatives say they're grateful for the quick response by first responders to extinguish the fire on June 5th.
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K-Town Flea Market expands to new location
TULSA — The Admiral Flee Market announced on Facebook that they are closing its doors after 39 years in business.
“This is going to be fantastic,” said Kim Baker, one of the two organizers. “As promoters, we want vendors to do super great. (We) needed to plop right in middle of people driving by so people would see us.”
By: Sarah Dewberry
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Photo by: John Guthery
TULSA — The Admiral Flee Market announced on Facebook that they are closing its doors after 39 years in business.
The owner Sam announced the reason behind the closing is because they are retiring.
The business will reman open and it will close at the end of this year.
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Lakewood Route 70 flea market likely to close, 332 townhouses OK'd at site
LAKEWOOD, NJ - Plans to turn Lakewood's longtime flea market into a 166-townhouse complex are a leap closer to reality.
Earlier this month environmental regulators announced they intend to issue a permit for construction at the site of Route 70 Auction & Flea Market, ending a nearly four-year holdup prompted by concerns the township water supply couldn't support development there. A New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection notice says the project will include 166 townhouses with basement apartments, for a total of 332 housing units, a nearly 12,000-square-foot retail building and a 10,000-square-foot community building.
Fans of the 40-year-old market — and its more than 600 vendors — need not worry of an imminent shutdown.
"We're here for the year," said Reece McCabe, one of the owners of the market. "We have a lease, so they can't kick us out regardless." The market's season runs through December.