Yuma Swap Meet won't reopen in November as Border Patrol looks to expand on their property
The Yuma Swap Meet is not expected to reopen in November after the U.S. government planned to acquire the property for future Border Patrol expansion.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, the organization announced that Bill Gresser Jr., President of the Yuma Swap Meet, revealed they were actively searching for a new location. The reason for this decision, as stated in the post, was due to the U.S. government's plans to acquire the property in the near future for the purpose of expanding the border patrol station.
"Yuma Swap Meet has operated at the same location for over 60 years and we are proud of the contributions we have made to Yuma," said Gresser. "At our core, we are a big family where hundreds of small local businesses work hard to make a living."
Gresser said that the swap meet is also the largest tourist attraction in Yuma County, with tens of thousands of visitors coming from Yuma and across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico throughout the winter.
During any typical weekend, the 40-acre swap meet hosted more than 350 individual vendors, primarily from Yuma, but also from various other states, including California, Oregon, Washington, and more.
Sylvia Parada, Space Sales manager and an employee since 1990, said everyone at the swap meet is family.
"All our vendors are small, family-owned businesses," she said. "I've watched children working in their family's stand who grew up to be vendors on their own."
Parada mentioned that they had vendors who initially began with just a few items, but over time, they expanded their businesses and eventually opened stores in the town.
"Our objective is to be the ideal location for small businesses to start and grow," said Parada.
Max Dunham, a general manager who has also had worked at the swap meet since 1990 said that the business was about entertainment. Dunham said that up to 10,000 shoppers would come to the area for family friendly fun, great food, live music, free entertainment, and "incredible" shopping. Dunham went on to say that one sign of their popularity was that the swap meet had over 18,000 followers on Facebook.
Gresser said that as an organization, they were always good neighbors with the Border Patrol and they understand the need for them to expand. They were told that the property the swap meet sat on was the best place for the federal agency to expand, according to the post.
"Yuma Swap Meet has made a positive impact on so many lives, from small-family owned businesses, to people just looking for something fun to do in Yuma," said Gresser.
They are actively working to identify a new location to help keep Yuma's small businesses running and "the great fun going," said Gresser.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Yuma Swap Meet won't reopen as Border Patrol plans to acquire property
