The future of the Tallahassee Flea Market Exchange faces more uncertainty as escalating code violations, including lack of a temporary use permit, at its newest location threaten to shut the market down entirely.
The city of Tallahassee issued a $250 fine to owners of the Motel 6, 2801 N. Monroe St., where the flea market relaunched last month in the hotel’s parking lot.
On May 7, documents show CJC Properties LTD and Mataji Hotels LLC were ordered to pay that fine and an additional $250 per day until the violation is resolved — totaling $3,500 to date.
It’s the latest challenge for organizers who have struggled to find a suitable home for the flea market after a freak winter storm in January 2025 signaled its end after a more than 40-year run. The storm brought 2 inches of sleet, snow and ice to the capital and collapsed the roof over numerous vendor booths.
Other locations, including a lot at 4721 Capital Circle S.W., less than a mile from the former location and across the street from a small gas station, have not panned out.
In a recent Facebook post, organizer Eugene Larry aired his frustrations with working with local officials regarding permits: “We reached out to a lot of city officials when we first started this campaign to keep an opportunity like the flea in our city and not one of them responded to us,” Larry said, adding that what the exchange is doing is no different than other weekend markets at other locations.
“It’s been a year, neither the city or the county, with all the money, land, or resources they have at their disposal took the efforts to look out for our community. Now we have fought up and down for over a year trying to keep and maintain this opportunity.”
Local resident says flea market customers causing congestion, parking illegally
A resident, Janice France, who lives near the hotel sent several complaints to the city and media regarding the flea market’s impact to her property.
In an April 6 email, she sent photos of what she described as “people pulling in and out of my property, parking illegally on the side of the road forcing other drivers to pass on the wrong side, congestion at the light and congestion while people are trying to pull in and out of Callaway Road.”
Another email from May 16 said the flea market has operated for six consecutive weeks “despite the existence of an active enforcement case and the assessment of daily fines.”
“This continues to be an ongoing public-safety issue,” she wrote, highlighting ongoing concerns including no evident traffic-control plan, marked pedestrian routing or separation from vehicle flow.
“These conditions have now been repeatedly observable over multiple weekends,” she said. “The continued tolerance of these conditions creates increasing liability exposure for the City of Tallahassee should an accident, pedestrian injury, or traffic-related incident occur after repeated warnings and documented complaints.”
Matlow says complaints are ‘fabricated and overblown’
Progress toward a compromise may be underway but it’s not clear to what extent.
Growth Management Director John Reddick gave city commissioners an update May 13, saying a temporary use permit submission “gives an opportunity to make sure there’s basic zoning and traffic circulation and life safety standards are met.”
“The owner has taken that step, submitted their basic layout of what they intend to do … and provide us the opportunity to provide feedback,” Reddick said. “We gave them that initial feedback … So, there is progress. We have had recent conversations yesterday immediately following that feedback of talking to the operators … So, they understand what adjustments need to be made.”
At the meeting, when asked about the timeframe to resolve the issues, Reddick said fixes are relatively simple, adding, “it shouldn’t be a complex timeline for them to be able to make the adjustments and get it back to us. So, the ball is in their court, and we expect that to be a quick turnaround.”
As of May 20, however, a city spokeswoman said no fines have been paid and no temporary use permit was issued.
Tallahassee City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow offered his take on the issue in a May 16 Facebook post after eyeballing the flea market in person over the weekend.
He said “many of the complaints were fabricated or overblown and there was much more to the story.”
“At the end of the day, our role as a city should be to encourage and help start-up businesses get off the ground, not throw up road blocks and excessive fines,” said Matlow, who is running for mayor.
“Many of the vendors’ livelihoods depend on these types of markets and I’ll continue to advocate for them and for our codes to be applied fairly and uniformly.”
Contact Economic Development Reporter TaMaryn Waters at tlwaters@tallahassee.com and follow @TaMarynWaters on X.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: New Tallahassee flea market faces code violations, but compromise may be near
Reporting by TaMaryn Waters, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
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