Vendors who have sold goods at the Northside Marketplace in Akron say the the market is holding onto money they are rightfully owed.
Brent Wesley, who goes by “Wesley The Keeper” and co-owns Akron Honey with his wife, Rebecca Wesley, said he pulled his business’s products from Northside Marketplace shelves May 3 to prevent further financial losses.
Though management paid him much of the roughly $22,000 owed to him as of April 2025, Wesley said Northside Marketplace still owes him a past-due balance of about $3,500 or more.
“So, there’s always been this running balance, but it’s just much smaller this time,” Wesley said. “However, knowing and remembering how it felt to see them owing us $18,000 or $22,000, I was like, ‘Look, I’ve got to stop the bleeding here because they obviously don’t have the acumen to get me paid back.'”
Northside Marketplace Director Justin Lepley confirmed there have been delayed payments to most of the facility’s roughly 120 vendors and said he plans to get them paid as soon as possible.
“I fully acknowledge that any delay in payment can be really devastating for a small business,” Lepley said.
Lepley said he doesn’t know off the top of his head how much he owes the vendors and declined to provide an estimate.
The marketplace has experienced a revenue shortfall over about the past year, Lepley said, attributing the issue in part to “the economic downturn, in general.”
Lepley said he previously used his own personal income and cash flow from other businesses that he owns and fed it into the marketplace’s finances.
“The biggest challenge has just been in essentially rising operational expenses versus the income we bring in from vendor rent,” Lepley said. “And some of it has been a lack of some vendors paying their rent, which is kind of what sustains the marketplace.”
Lepley said Northside Marketplace serves as an “entrepreneurship incubator” and that some of the startups haven’t been able to cover their rent.
He said he’s “really dropped the ball” by not evicting or bringing legal action against the vendors who can’t pay.
The result, he said, “unfortunately impacts the overall model and our vendors who are doing their part.”
A look at the structure of Northside Marketplace’s operation
Lepley called the roughly 10,000-square-foot Northside Marketplace at 21 Furnace St. a “micro market” where customers can shop different retail vendors.
Retail spaces start at $25 per month for the 13-square-inch cubes and increase in price and size from there.
Northside Marketplace has a central checkout system, Lepley said, with the team that manages the complex providing checkout services for all the individual vendors.
Lepley said Northside Marketplace doesn’t take a split of commission from its vendors like other micro markets usually do. But he added that 5% of vendor sales go back to Northside Marketplace to cover expenses such as credit card processing fees and bagging supplies.
Travis Howe, who owned and operated Fat T’s Cookies in Northside Marketplace from 2017 until earlier this year, said he found the rent to be affordable. His rate was grandfathered in from when Testa Companies previously managed the property, before Lepley took over management and established property management group Marketplace Management in 2022.
Testa still owns the real estate, Lepley said.
Lepley said Northside Marketplace remits payments to vendors every two weeks when “things are flowing as they should.”
Owner of Fat T’s Cookies discovered payment delays last year
Howe said he noticed while doing his taxes last year, for the 2024 tax year, that Northside Marketplace owed him money. So, he raised the issue with Wesley and other vendors.
“If it weren’t for me, quite frankly, I … think there would be a few vendors that probably still wouldn’t know that they weren’t getting paid money that we earned and is there somewhere,” Howe said.
Howe said he closed his business in February because he chose to make a life change, not because of delayed payments. He now works in construction.
He said May 4 that Northside Marketplace still owes him hundreds of dollars, adding that the market previously owed him thousands.
“I still don’t know where the money went,” he said. “Just in my mind, if I’m selling a product – like, for example, if I’m selling a $4 cookie and someone pays for a $4 cookie – they have $4 from me,” he said.
Akron Honey owner shared the situation on social media this week
Wesley said he was originally planning a temporary move out of the Northside Marketplace. He posted his plan on social media May 4, along with names of other avenues for customers to purchase Akron Honey products.
Later that day, after seeing Lepley publicly address the payment issue on social media, Wesley said he’s not so sure he’ll bring the products back and continue his lease. He said he expects more “accountability” and better leadership from Lepley, calling Lepley’s responses “very corporate, very fluffy.”
“You’ve got to be accountable,” Wesley said.
Akron Honey has sold products at Northside Marketplace for more than eight years, he said.
Another Northeast Ohio retail location that housed multiple vendors, Made Cleveland in Cleveland Heights, was accused of delaying payments to its vendors, Wesley pointed out. Made Cleveland closed by late March 2025, Beacon Journal news partner News 5 reported.
Of Northside Marketplace, Wesley said, “From a professional business perspective, these are signs that the thing is not working.”
Marketplace director says he’s talking with vendors, seeking assistance
Lepley said on the afternoon of May 5 that he had conversations with various vendors over the preceding day about getting them paid. He said he sent a message to all the vendors that was reflective of a Facebook post he made on May 4 but tailored specifically to them.
He said he sent a message to them about two weeks ago acknowledging the delays. This time, he said he tried “to be even a little more clear and break down how the operations work.”
“We’re trying to get everybody caught up as quickly as we can, but I don’t have a specific timeframe to share,” he said.
In an attempt to make the Northside Marketplace sustainable, Lepley said he’s had some discussions with the city of Akron and Greater Akron foundations.
City of Akron spokeswoman Stephanie Marsh said via email that Mayor Shammas Malik has had “preliminary conversations with Mr. Lepley about the Marketplace’s struggles.”
“Northside Marketplace has become a beloved institution and an important addition to our downtown corridor especially for Akron’s microentrepreneurs and the folks who support them,” Marsh said.
Lepley, too, said Northside Marketplace is focused on supporting “microentrepreneurs,” as well as “makers.”
“My hope is, unfortunate as this whole situation is, that the publicity from it helps let folks know that if they want the Marketplace to exist and thrive as an incubator here in Akron, the model has to be supported, too,” Lepley said.
Patrick Williams covers growth and development for the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be reached by email at pwilliams@gannett.com or on X @pwilliamsOH. Sign up for the Beacon Journal’s business and consumer newsletter, “What’s The Deal?”
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Northside Marketplace vendors say they’re owed money from Akron market
Reporting by Patrick Williams, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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