December is a boom time for sales at Oldsmar Flea Market.

Thousands flock there on the weekend and search for parking spots at the sprawling bargain mall, which takes up 28 acres along Race Track Road.

Walking through the market, visitors can pass a candle stand, a knife vendor, a vintage clothing store, holiday decorations for sale, a music store and a smoke shop within dozens of feet of each other. Shoppers move in and out of the hundreds of vendor spaces at the 43-year-old market, some stopping to barter.

But several longtime vendors are missing from the market this holiday season after they say rising rent prices forced them elsewhere. The owners of one business that left say their rent nearly tripled over the past few years.

The market’s operations manager confirmed that rent prices have increased multiple times since a new owner took over in 2018, saying the extra funds are needed to pay for maintenance and crucial improvements.

Some vendors still at the market say they are worried about what the future might bring.

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“I’m right on the edge,” said Sharon Micek, who has operated Sam’s Books for more than 31 years. Micek said her rent was raised twice in the past year for her 20-by-20-foot unairconditioned unit. With utility payments she makes to the owners, she’s paying more than $1,600 a month. She said her rent has doubled over the past two years.

She said she’s tapped into her savings from last year’s busy season to make ends meet.

“If rent goes up again, I hope that I can sell enough books to keep up,” Micek said.

Moving on

Julia and Frank Fazzio have loved growing plants together for as long as they can remember.

When the married couple of 35 years first set up shop as Christine’s Tropical and Exotic Plants at Oldsmar Flea Market in 2013, they were eager to grow their clientele in an affordable location.

The Fazzios started in a small 10-by-20-foot booth before they expanded into a larger outdoor space where they initially paid $2,200 a month. When developer Grady Pridgin bought the market in 2018, their rent rose by nearly a couple of hundred dollars a month, they said. Last year, management raised rent by $1,500. On Sept. 15, the Fazzios were told rent would increase by another $2,500. Management informed them they would have to accept the increase or move out by October.

They knew they couldn’t sell enough plants to afford nearly $6,500 a month in rent, so they moved their market to a property in Odessa where they already resided. After ramping up their marketing and reaching out to former clients, many followed them to their new location.

“Over the years, we’ve actually become a destination in Florida, so we’re staying busy,” Julia Fazzio said.

While the move turned out to be a positive step for the couple, they say they still feel wronged by management. On top of the rent increases, they said the flea market was not properly maintained and that just before they left the market in October, Oldsmar Flea Market Operations Manager Mark Jones yelled at them in front of customers during an argument.

Jones confirmed that he texted an apology to the Fazzios after their argument.

But Jones also said that rumors are a problem at the market.

“I’d be willing to bet not a single one tells you what really happened,” he said.

As for the rent, Jones confirmed that many vendors received two increases this year. Others have had their rents steadily increased over the past couple of years, he said.

The money made from the rising rents will go toward fixing existing maintenance issues such as replacing wooden support beams at the shops. Jones said the rent increases will also help improve general maintenance of the market and making upgrades.

Jones said an Asian farmer’s market with more than 100 produce vendors will open at the flea market next year. He said he hopes to build new restaurants and bars for customers along the breezeway.

But the main reason for the rent increases, he said, is that the cost of operations has increased.

“It’s just like your own cost of living going up, it’s exactly the same with running a business,” Jones said. “It’s not that the owner is greedy, he has a heart of gold.”

The future of the market

Jones said he wants to counter rumors that rents will increase again in January or that the flea market might shut down or transition to being filled with corporate liquidation stores. He said the flea market isn’t going anywhere, and that there is no rent increase scheduled before October 2024.

Jones manages 20 buildings with 230,000 square feet of indoor vending spaces, along with another 40,000 square feet of open-air space hosting hundreds of vendors. He was hired by Pridgin, a high-profile real estate developer based in St. Petersburg, after Pridgin bought the property from the original owner, Richard Ferkich, in 2018.

In recent years, several other flea markets in Tampa Bay closed amid the coronavirus pandemic and other pressures. Oldsmar has one of the few flea markets left in the area after the 2020 closures of Pinellas Park’s Wagon Wheel Flea Market and Tampa’s Big Top Flea Market and the 2021 closure of Tampa’s Fun-Lan Swap Shop.

While management says thousands flock to the market on weekends in December, another longtime vendor is making plans to move out.

Musashi Yamasaki opened his Gundam From Japan model toy store in 2013. Like the Fazzios, he began in a small outdoor booth and worked his way up to a bigger unit. He appreciates the opportunity the flea market provided to start his business with what he calls “five dollars and a dream.” But a $1,200 rent increase in October brought his rent to $4,000, and he decided to look for something new. In January, he’s moving to the Town ‘N Country Promenade Shopping Mall.

Yamasaki looks forward to cultivating an appreciation for Japanese culture in a new space. He’s also excited to have clean bathrooms. At the flea market, he said he and most of his employees avoid the bathrooms due to lack of maintenance and walk to the nearby gas station.

Still, Yamasaki has fond memories.

“This flea market has been amazing for me in so many ways,” Yamasaki said. “That’s why I’m not bitter, even though I don’t want to pay the increased rent here.”