The site of the old Brice Outlet mall is getting a facelift. It will soon be home of the Marketplace of the Americas.
Developers said it's a new concept in shopping.
"It's not a flea market. It's not a mall. It's the in between," said General Manager Bill Brown.
Several investors have purchased the mall and are developing it into a place where entrepreneurs can get a start.
A 10X10 vendor booth starts at $200 a month -- with no long-term commitment.
The price makes it attractive to anyone who is thinking about starting their own business, and that's exactly what they are trying to do.
"There is no way they could pay that amount and be in any kind of mall and the responsibility falls back on us as far as bring the people and so forth," Brown said.
Bringing the people in could be a huge hurdle to clear. The mall is in an area where stores like Meijer and Target have long been abandoned and shopping has dwindled.
But other stores like the Andersons and Lindsay Acura have stayed, and the Marketplace is considering them anchor stores.
A local business, Kingdom of Bounce, has only been at their City Park location for about a year and decided to make the jump and open a second location at the Marketplace.
"I know there was a lot of shopping out there, and that has lost its footing out there," said Kingdom of Bounce President Sara Okoon. "Hopefully this will do what it's supposed to do and really wake up a part of town that really needs to be woken back up again."
At the new location, Kingdom of Bounce will offer bumper cars and arcade games along with the bouncers.
Most of the stores in the family-themed complex, will only be open Friday, Saturday and Sunday. While others like the Cinema City movie theater will be open seven days a week.
Currently out of the 400 spaces available, they have 65 percent of them filled.
The Marketplace of the Americas hopes to open by Labor Day.
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