Site of Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede to reopen as flea market

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/busin...,1478729.story

Sandra Pedicini
Sentinel Staff Writer
1:49 p.m. EDT, September 14, 2009

Dolly Parton's old dinner theater, Dixie Stampede, will come to life again as a flea market and massive pizza parlor, celebrating its grand opening on Halloween.

I-4 Flea Market has signed a lease with Tennessee-based Dixie Stampede LLC and is advertising for vendors to fill about 400 stalls in the building on Vineland Road near the tourist strip of International Drive.

Tami Valadez, the flea market's general manager, said it will be open seven days a week. Vendors will pay anywhere from $600 to $6,000 a month for their spaces, she said.

Should shoppers get hungry, they can stop for pizza. The entire second floor is getting transformed into a pizza parlor, Valadez said.

I-4 Flea Market is headed by Nashae Hall, who Valadez said was not available for comment.

The building on Vineland Road near the Orlando Premium Outlets has stood empty since shuttering abruptly more than a year and a half ago.

With its visibility from I-4, the building offers "a wonderful location," Valadez said.

David Marks, president of Orlando-based retail real-estate consulting firm Marketplace Advisors, said a flea market might have a difficult time given the huge amount of shopping options nearby.

"It's going to depend on how well it's done in terms of the type of experience," he said. "I think its challenging. There's been a number of projects around Orlando that have looked to create these permanent flea markets, and I think a lot of them have been fairly marginal."

The flea market will have to bring in unique vendors to appeal to tourists, he said, because "there's plenty of places on International Drive to buy luggage and a T-shirt and so forth."

Even so, it's clear that during the recession, everyone has been looking for bargains. So as more established retailers have left shopping centers, secondhand stores and flea markets have filled some of the space.

On Orange Blossom Trail, for instance, an indoor flea market called Bella's Marketplace is expected to open next month in the old Rooms to Go Outlet building on Orange Blossom Trail a mile south of Florida Mall.

Betsy Trobaugh, a director with the University of Florida's David F. Miller School for Retailing Education and Research, discussed the trend last month at an International Council of Shopping Centers conference. "We're seeing thrift stores go into this space, consignment stores, flea market type environments, from renting out space to vendors to actually renting out space to individuals cleaning out their houses," Trobaugh said.

Sandra Pedicini can be reached at spedicini@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5240.

[DisneyRunner2009]

My family drove by the building in August and saw the sign. We thought, what a waste of a decent building and prime location. An entire floor for pizza? Not for me thanks.