NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla — The Shell Factory may have closed its doors, but the vendors who once set up there are finding new life here at Paradise Vintage Market. Fox 4’s North Fort Myers Community Correspondent Austin Schargorodski works in the area daily, so he went to the market to talk to a vendor about their journey and resilience.
Watch Austin's report here...
Rows of tables filled half the parking lot, as customers perused the handmade goods and vintage finds. Captain Brandon Grendell, owner of the Potato Pirate Food Truck, used to sell cottage goods at the Shell Factory. He says this market has given him a way to keep his business growing.
“If it wasn’t for something like this, the economy, growth and regrowth, and recovery would be that much slower. So, I love seeing that resurgence and that effort out of the community to be able to keep growing and get back together,” said Grendell.
When the Shell Factory closed in October, Beth Meyer, Managing Partner of Paradise Vintage Market, said she was flooded with requests from displaced vendors looking to join their market.
Even with many now here, she said there’s still a waiting list of nearly 70 more. “We actually have opened this area on the North side of the building to accommodate the former Shell Factory vendors,” Meyer explained.
Meyer said she’s grateful this market has given those vendors a chance at a new start.
