The owners of The Downtown Market, a business and vendor space on 45 S. French Broad Ave., have announced that their mortgage is being foreclosed and that the Downtown Market Consignment, home to over 70 vendors, will be closing June 30.
The fate of the other businesses leasing space at the market, including Amazing Savings Grocery, hi~fi Coffee Bar and Pho Fusion, remains unclear, but co-owner Bobby Potts remains hopeful that First Bank, The Bank of Asheville Branch, will work with current tenants to keep their leases.
“We struggled from the beginning just trying to make a go at it and trying to do something that would fit in to the economy,” Potts said.
“As we struggled, we had our loan with the Bank of Asheville. They were actually working with us, and we were trying to work out some restructuring of the loan and had been working with them for several months to do that. And then Jan. 21, FDIC stepped in and First Bank took over. And we immediately called for a meeting and met with them. The bottom line, to make a very long story short: They want us to pay off the loan, and the building isn’t worth what it was in 2007,” Potts said.
In a letter to the Downtown Market’s tenants explaining the foreclosure, Potts and co-owner Josiah Hyatt attributed the economic downturn to the lack of options the business faces, saying, “There are almost no loans for commercial buildings and new businesses, especially with a shortage now in value, leaving us with no real choices.”
Ah, what a bummer.
the owners could always look into submitting a claim of right for the property. or, depending on the amount due, everyone that participates on doing business there can buy ‘shares’ and/or throw a fundraiser. or, and i’m not sure how well it’ll work, let it go to foreclosure. the foreclosure price will always be lower (plus depending on back taxes or whatever else is owed, perhaps that can be waived), so that could be an opportunity for all vendors who wish to collaborate, to buy the building at the lower price. at a later time, if a ‘shareholder’ decides to leave, they can sell or rent their space to the next tennant.
Maybe the Bank could find a way to keep it open & continue running it? The downside to a multi-vendor space is consumers, unfortunately can’t relate to a retail-restaurant space with an identity crisis.
We can’t afford to loose anymore small public vendor spaces. Work it out!
It is ridiculous that people are losing their homes and businesses everyday simply because nobody will work with them. Banks in this country are about as worthless as they can possibly be.
For example – we have a bankster that’s going to foreclose on a building with a number of small businesses inside who pay rent for the privilege to setup and do their business in this location. This rent is a fixed cost that must be paid out every month along with utilities, taxes and payroll.
It seems as this overextended commercial real-estate bubble pops across the country – it will become a major disaster for the community. You now have an empty unused building creating a tax revenue loss to local government – unemployment goes up – more tax revenues lost – it becomes a viscous spiraling cycle down – not including the probable psychological impact on future enterprise. Let’s face it, when cost of doing business goes up – and the cost of products and services go up – while incomes stagnate and decreases in a community – a downward economic cycle accelerates.
It seems the only way to win at this game is to do business more efficiently and cost effectively by reducing overhead and expanding your customer sphere of influence. The answer – take a look around – who is growing in this new marketplace reality? To me it looks like those who have effectively expanded their business onto the Internet – to expand beyond the overhead of a brick & mortar operation.
It is always interested to me that people open a business with no plan or capital upfront. If they knew that they might have issues making payments in the long run why did they open it in the first place? Sounds like they lacked a plan for the future. A gamble.
I doubt that the tenants can afford to buy shares in the building. Most of them barely make it I’m sure.
I did rent a space in the downtown market temporarily. I heard complaints all day about the lack of patrons and not selling their goods. Personally I think the location is the main problem. It is out of the way and little parking for customers.
Bummer .. I like Pho Fusion!
It’s no surprise. That place sold JUNK. It was not art. It had turned into a flea market of garbage. Too bad, it could have been great…something like Kress, or Woolworths, but no it was garbage.