The former Forever 21 store in North County Mall seemed like a perfect temporary home for the Escondido Public Library, which has to relocate for about a year while renovations are made to its 44-year-old building.
At 50,000 square feet, the site has more than enough room for the library and bookstore run by Friends of the Escondido Library. The food court is next door, there’s ample free parking and it was considered move-in ready.
The only problem, city officials learned, was that the old store was not vacant, but in fact home to more than 70 businesses as part of the Cultured Vibe Expo, a concession market of small apparel and collectible shops that has been open for about two months.
“Mall management communicated to us that that space was open and available to us when we needed it, and that was not the case,” said Escondido Director of Economic Development Jennifer Schoeneck.
“There’s a business there that’s growing, and there are 74 registered small businesses in that space,” she said. “And as an economic developer, the last thing I want to do is displace a business.”
The revelation isn’t expected to derail or even delay the library move, but things likely will be modified. Schoeneck said rather than moving the library into one large suite on the third floor, the plan now is to move into a number of small vacant suites on the first floor.
The city plans to close the library at 239 S. Kalmia St. in mid-April for a month-long move before renovations begin in June.
The mall suite was never officially selected by the City Council as a temporary library site, but it was recommended over two other sites by city staff members, and the Library Board of Trustees unanimously agreed on the site at their Feb. 13 meeting.
Some time after that meeting, expo owners Young Cho and Josh Cha said they were surprised to learn that another tenant had eyes on their site.
“I think library personnel who visited (the suite) thought we were like a temporary pop-up store,” Cho said. “I think there was a miscommunication. We’re obviously not a temporary pop up store. We were planning to stay here forever.”
Cho said they signed a two-year lease last summer and began moving in small businesses in November, with a goal of having around 100 vendors. The two have operated a similar business, NinjaXchange Collectible Expo, for about two years in the former Sears at The Shoppes at Carlsbad.
Many of the vendors have full-time jobs and operate their shops on the side, so the operating hours in Escondido are limited to 3-9 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. Saturdays and 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. Sundays, the owners said.
Schoeneck said a silver living of the situation could be a partnership with the dealers.
“We’re going to try and work out some programming with them or some book exchanges so that we can have access to more of the e-commerce books that they have access to in their inventory,” she said. “So I think it’s going to be a really positive relationship moving forward with them.”
Vendors at the expo sell vintage clothes, sports jerseys, jewelry, Pokemon cards, ceramics, artwork and various types of collectibles. Cho said many customers tend to be 50 and older who are looking for hard-to-find things from their youth.
On a recent afternoon, Joshua Cantwell was setting up his new business, Collectify Universe, with partner Kayla Caton. Perhaps typical of many vendors, his shop is a side hustle, and is his first venture with selling sports and Pokemon cards along with war memorabilia, stamps and coins in person.
“I’ve been collecting since I was 8 years old,” Cantwell said. “I started collecting baseball cards. Padres, Dodgers, Red Sox for my favorite team, and I just fell in love with it.”
Caton said they had been selling items online for a few years and decided to try a physical shop after discovering the expo and meeting Cho.
“There’s not a lot of startup overhead,” she said about the appeal. “It doesn’t feel like there’s so much risk.”
“I love the vibe, the feel of everyone here,” Cantwell said about the expo.
