Antique addicts now can search for steals in Silver Spring.
The Flower Avenue Holiday Market opened Saturday with an offering of antiques and crafts in what the owner hopes to make a permanent staple in the Long Branch neighborhood.
Silver Spring residents Chris Lancette and Won-ok Kim started the market as part of their new business venture, Orion’s Attic, a company that sells antiques.
The market opened with about eight vendors during the holiday weekend, but Lancette said he hopes to fill the market’s space at a parking lot on Flower Avenue and Arliss Street with as many as 40 vendors.
“It’s going to be a pilot project to see how many vendors and shoppers are willing to come out in the cold,” Lancette said.
For now, the market will be open Saturdays through Dec. 24. If the market goes well, Lancette plans to open the market again in the spring.
“The Flower Avenue Holiday Market is going to be a really great place for shoppers to go find some new and exciting things for the holidays that you won’t find in a shopping mall,” Lancette said.
The market will feature antique wares from Orion’s Attic, as well as crafts from local vendors.
Lancette and Kim started Orion’s Attic a year ago.
Lancette collects rare books from the Revolutionary War time period. He wanted to display his collectors items and bought an antique bookshelf for them. Lancette soon expanded into buying more antique furniture to make the room with his antique books into a library.
Lancette realized he had an eye for deals on auction sites, so he and Kim decided to buy a few items and resell them. If they made a profit, they would put the money in a vacation fund, Lancette said.
“I’m not a business major, but we seemed to find some pretty good deals,” Lancette said.
The couple bought a dining table on Craigslist and resold it for $100 more than the purchase price. That first dining table turned into more antique furniture and then vintage toys and beyond. Before long, the two moved into a new house and filled their two-car garage with their wares.
“We went from buying a few items, to every dollar we made, we put it right back into the business,” Lancette said.
Lancette and Kim sold items at their house by appointment or at upscale garage sales in the community. They then decided to devote more of their time to the business and start a holiday market.
“The goal here is to create a really fun place for people to shop on Saturdays that helps businesses, including ours, make a few bucks,” Lancette said.
Reemberto Rodriguez, director of the Silver Spring Regional Services Center, said the market would help draw people to the Long Branch neighborhood around Piney Branch Road.
“It’s great to have this new entity,” Rodriguez said. “Long Branch is in need of celebration.”
The market also is teaming up with the nonprofit group, IMPACT Silver Spring.
IMPACT organizes support groups for people struggling during the recession. A few of these groups have decided to take on projects and start small business ventures together, said Chris Wilhelm, Long Branch athletic association coordinator at IMPACT.
“People have tons and tons of gifts and talents to offer,’’ Wilhelm said. “This will be a great place for people to showcase some of those talents and hopefully turn that into generating opportunities.”
Several of these groups have booths at the market. For example, a group of women who started a sewing group will be at the market advertising paid sewing classes, Wilhelm said. Eventually the group hopes to sell their sewing creations at the market, Wilhelm said.
“It’s going to showcase a lot of gifts and talents in the Long Branch neighborhood,” Wilhelm said.
Lancette said the market will help Orion’s Attic, IMPACT and small businesses in Silver Spring feed off each other.
“[Customers’] dollars are going to IMPACT Silver Spring, which in turn is going to put money back into micro-business developments in the neighborhood and Orion’s Attic will also have a chance to grow,” Lancette said.
The Flower Avenue Holiday Market opens every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Dec. 24 on the corner of Arliss Street and Flower Avenue in Silver Spring.
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