(Image: Punk Rock Flea Market)

No construction cranes over Capitol Hill might mean rents are going to keep going up.

But they’re not tearing your favorite bar down.

And the Quality Flea Center will be around for another year on 15th Ave E.

The organizers behind the Punk Rock Flea Market have made official what was already pretty damn clear: The old Capitol Hill QFC the market started calling home isn’t going to be demolished any time soon.

The PRFM is returning to the QFC this month:

For nearly two full decades PRFM has been building a community of brilliant artists and hard-working crafts people, creating a family of small vendors that is stronger than ever. For three joyful days April 25-27 you can forget all about the troubled world outside by joining an anti-capitalist shopping spree in the magic factory we call the Quality Flea Center on Capitol Hill. We’re proud to play host to nearly 200 purveyors of culture, craft and weirdness selling the lovingly curated sneakers, dog collars, records, stickers, custom clothing, roller skates, gemstones, cosmetics, ceramics and robot dogs you truly need!

All of this while our skilled bartenders pour cheap drinks of your choice, killer DJ’s provide a lush shopping soundtrack, and spicy food makers help keep your bellies full and your outlook positive. The good vibes are long overdue.

The PRFM remains an ALL AGES experiment. We believe wholeheartedly that children are our hopeful future, seniors are our checkered past, and everyone has something to gain from being part of the PRFM. And we staunchly resist inflation by asking only ONE DOLLAR to enter the Punk Rock Flea Market. Take that, forces of tyranny! Show up, make some noise, and experience what the free trade of objects and ideas really looks like.

As always, the PRFM supports our friends the Low Income Housing Institute, aka. LIHI, with a donation from our proceeds. LIHI is a non-profit organization that provides homes for homeless and low-income people all around the Puget Sound, and is currently leading the effort to build tiny self–contained houses for homeless people and families around our region. More info about them at www.lihi.org.

The Punk Rock Flea Market is supported in part by awards from 4Culture and the City of Seattle Office of Economic Development. For more info contact [email protected]. Or visit www.punkrockfleamarketseattle.com.

CHS reported here last June on the Punk Rock Flea Market’s move onto 15th Ave E where it was set to make its temporary home through at least the end of 2024. That stay could last a while given current economic conditions.

Music, too

The old QFC and its surface parking lot are destined to eventually make way for a planned 6-story, “S” design building with 170 new apartment units above 10,000 square feet of retail space and underground parking for 99 vehicles. CHS reported in September on the city’s design review board signing off on the proposal to add a sixth floor on the project from developer Hunters Capital.

The PRFM folks have keep the old grocery busy in the meantime with a schedule of its big flea markets, plus smaller markets and performances, as well as hosting a food truck in the market’s old parking lot.

Hunters Capital, meanwhile, is continuing to search for a community partner to fill a space on the other end of the someday-to-be-demolished block. The old ShopRite convenience store at 15th and Republican remains empty.

Thrift and vintage options on the Hill beyond 15th Ave E remain strong. Magpie Thrift is making a new beginning in the longtime Broadway Lifelong Thrift space and the dudes from Break Away have created their own thing as part of the Late Night Vintage complex on E Pike.

The Quality Flea Center lives on at 416 15th Ave E. To learn more and for rental inquiries, visit punkrockfleamarketseattle.com/pages/quality-flea-center.

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