COSTA MESA : Swap Meet Vendors Fighting Rent Hikes

The sluggish economy had already taken a heavy toll of Dean Brown’s artificial flower business when he found out that the rent on his Orange County Fairgrounds vending stand was about to nearly double.

It was the kind of added expense neither he nor many of the other 1,500 recession-rocked weekend vendors could afford.

So they mounted a vocal campaign against the rent hikes, and after a loud public meeting last week, the sellers appeared to have made some progress.

Fair and swap-meet officials on Thursday postponed the increases, which would have boosted some vendors’ rents as much as 200%.

Yet a hike of some amount is still likely.

“That would take us out of the competition. It would make it cost-prohibitive to be a vendor,” said Brown, whose monthly rent would be jumped from $751 to $1,351 even though he said his stand generates only half the business it did two years ago.

The whole issue of raising rents first surfaced last year when the state-run fair sought bids from groups wanting to manage the swap meet, known as the Orange County Marketplace.

The Fair Board eventually retained Tel-Phil Enterprises, which has operated the swap meet for more than 20 years.

Tel-Phil and the board agreed on a lease that gives 38.375% of rent revenues back to the fair, as well as 51% of food, beverage and alcohol sales, according to Norb Bartosik, fair general manager.

That is an increase from the last lease, in which Tel-Phil returned to the fair 33.33% of rent revenues plus 15% from food sales and 27% from alcohol sales, Bartosik added.

Tel-Phil originally planned to pass the increases on to the vendors beginning Nov. 1.

But now, the company hopes a compromise can be worked out in which each party, including the Fair Board, gives a little, said Stewart Suchman, an attorney representing Tel-Phil.

At the Fair Board meeting, about 250 vendors made known their displeasure with the rent hikes, prompting officials to place a moratorium on the increases pending further attempts to end the dispute, Bartosik said.

But the three sides seem to have a ways to go before a deal is struck.

Brown and other vendors, for example, say they deserve a rent decrease in line with drops in commercial real estate prices, which they said have benefited competing retailers.

“A lot of us are just hanging on. This would be just devastating,” said Tom Askew, who has sold auto accessories at the swap meet for 22 years and whose monthly rent would increase from $720 to $1,315.

The swap meet is popular because vendors are able to offer shoppers below-retail prices, Askew said.

With the skyrocketing rents, sellers said, they would have to raise prices.

“Today’s consumers want value for their money. The swap meet offers them value,” Askew added. “Take away that incentive in hard times, and they won’t come.”