Durham’s Green Flea Market, long a thriving Latino business center, is for sale
The Durham Green Flea Market is one reason hundreds flock to east Durham every weekend, where bargains on clothing, jewelry and other goods are abundant and the smell of tacos, pupusas and churros fill the air.
As one of Durham’s most active centers of local business activity, the Green Flea Market has been a unique haven for local businesses and Latino commerce in the Triangle for many years.
But the 7-acre market, also known as “la pulga” in Spanish, and its large parking lot at 1600 East Pettigrew St., are currently for sale, with an asking price of $11 million.
That price tag reflects the market’s location minutes away from the Bull City’s downtown core, which has rapidly grown in population and developments in the last decade.
“With the development that’s going on in downtown Durham, the land has increased in value,” said Robert Perry, who owns and operates the market with his son, Trans. “The land is no longer being used for its highest and best use.”
Robert Perry has owned the land for over a decade, and his son became a majority owner in 2015. The main parcel and two adjacent ones were bought for a combined $735,000, county records show.
The Perrys, who previously purchased additional land around the market to increase its capacity, also say they’ve outgrown the property. It’s near Hayti, the historically Black business district and neighborhood.
“The main reason for this is we’ve outgrown the flea market,” said Trans Perry, who owns Transition Development, a real estate builder. “We are overcrowded, we have a lot of patrons. And we need a bigger piece of property to build a bigger and better flea market.”
The Perrys say the flea market won’t be disappearing anytime soon. A potential site near I-85 toward north Durham is planned for the market after the current site sells. Robert Perry said the new location will be bigger and expand access to N.C. 50 and the nearby towns of Oxford and Butner.
The Perrys say they’re planning for an easy transition in the future so no vendors will be displaced.
Growth for east Durham
Hayti was once a thriving area for Durham’s historic Black community, but it has been economically disinvested after it was partially destroyed to make way for the Durham Freeway during the time of integration and urban renewal.
The flea market, just blocks away, is key to expanding much-needed housing and retail to an area that lacks investment, said Charles Bulthuis, president of Reformation Asset Management, the local brokerage firm managing the property’s sale.
“In the present we have the pulga, which is a very uniquely Durham feature, and something that I think the community thoroughly enjoys,” said Bulthuis. “But the future of Durham is one where we really must be cognizant of our population growth, our need for affordable housing, and our need to keep the workforce as well as the growth centralized where our services are located.”
A range of factors can prove favorable for a developer of dense housing with affordable units, Bulthuis said. This includes close-by land owned by the city that could be used to build parking structures for future housing, potentially funded by the city’s affordable housing program.
He said while the flea market and its adjacent streets are currently zoned for industrial use only, the city’s Future Land Use Plan recommends a higher density of mixed-use housing and transit-oriented development.
According to the city plan, the land is designated as a Compact Design District along with the rest of the downtown core, making the Green Flea Market a site prone for development rezoning.
A residential development in the Compact Design District that includes affordable housing can have a maximum of 75 dwelling units built per acre, according to city’s Unified Development Ordinance.
The land south of the flea market is also recommended for medium density residential use, which can allow building up to 12 units per acre, above its current Residential Urban zoning, which doesn’t permit denser housing.
The land is also a federally qualified Opportunity Zone, which provides economic incentives and capital gains tax exemptions for real estate developers, in order to encourage economic growth in low-income areas.
“With that in mind, we can look at the land that the flea market represents, and the land heading west from the flea market to Fayetteville Street and recognize that we have a very unique opportunity represented by nearly 20 acres of land ... to rebuild what was once a thriving neighborhood,” Bulthuis said.
Change for a staple in Durham
The sale of the Green Flea Market would represent a big change for business, said Rufino Rodriguez, who owns Las Delicias de Magdalena, a churrería that has served sugar-coated and cream-filled churros at the market for around 12 years.
“A new location means customers may not know where we relocated to,” Rodríguez said in Spanish one Saturday afternoon. “I’ll have to call my customers, and it will be a new beginning, sort of. Our customers already know where we are. If we move, the same patrons may not come as often or go eat elsewhere.”
Rufino, who said he has a good relationship with the Perrys, would rather the Green Flea Market stay in its current location so it won’t have to potentially recover customers in the future.
However, he agrees that the property is in a good location for a new housing development that could potentially replace his business’ home.
“We do value the patrons and the vendors, and we do think we provide outlets for the Latino community with respect to their use of the flea market,” Robert Perry said. “We want everybody to have this experience ... We need a bigger piece of property to attract (more) people in the community.”
Robert Perry said this real estate sale as part of Durham’s growth is similar to that of the former University Ford Kia dealership next to the American Tobacco Campus in 2016. That land sold for $29 million, which was used to buy land to build a new dealership elsewhere.
That piece of land on 601 Willard St. was sold to Capital Broadcasting Co., who is redeveloping it into a massive expansion to the American Tobacco Campus.
“If he decides to sell it, then that’s good, it’s his choice. I just want them to have some consideration,” said Rodríguez. “This business is part of how we make our living.”
This story was originally published September 14, 2021 at 5:55 AM.
