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AmigosNAZ staff reports
FLAGSTAFF — Music, food and plenty of arts and crafts could be found at the inaugural Mercado de Sueños / Dream Marketplace, which celebrated its grand opening on June 20 near the corner of 7th and 4th streets in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Flagstaff.
The mercado will eventually occupy a former dental office that is undergoing remodeling. Meanwhile, small business owners from the Sunnyside neighborhood found creative ways to make do until their permanent home opens.
On an unseasonable hot day and sometimes windy day in Flagstaff, merchants scrambled to find doors and other items to use as table tops for the mercado so they could display their handmade items such as pine needle baskets, embroidered napkins, tablecloths and clothing, creative artwork and of course, fresh bread and other food items.
According to organizers, the mercado is a grassroots democratic community project designed to create a multi-cultural market and micro-entrepreneurship center, in other words a mini-business incubator project.
The overall goal is to help local residents realize their dream of starting their own business, hoping they will eventually outgrow the space at the building and start populating and reinvigorating many of the currently vacant storefronts along 4th and 7th streets.
Patrick Pfeifer, one of the organizers of the project, provided AmigosNAZ with a brief tour of the building, showing architectural plans and detailing which walls will be coming down to create an open concept center where vendors will be able rent space to help them grow their businesses.
The mercado merchants also get business training and information on how to access loans to expand their business. The former X-ray room in the old dental office will be turned into a low-wattage local radio station for the neighborhood. Pfeifer expects the remodeling to be completed by late summer.
The project was developed through a feasibility study by the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association Inc. and the Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NACET) and is supported by local and county government, SEDI (Sustainable Economic Development Initiative), the SEDI (Small Business Development Center), local schools, United Way of Northern Arizona, the Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce, Flagstaff FOODLINK and other organizations.
The group meets at 7 p.m. each Wednesday at 2532 E. 7th St. in the building.
The next Mercado de Sueños / Dream Marketplace will be held at 5 p.m. Friday, July 18 at the Southwest Corner of the Cal-Ranch parking lot. The event will feature local artists, live music, local vendors and diverse multi-culture artisans and crafters.
The mercado is a Sunnyside Neighborhood Association Special Initiative in partnership with Northern Arizona University, with seed funding from JP Morgan Chase. Call 928-213-5900, visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/MercadodeSuenos/, click here to see a slideshow presentation, or click here to see an April 16, 2014 story in the Flagstaff Business News for more information.