6th Street Vendors Can Stay — for Now


The city has granted the remaining tenants of the 6th Street Marketplace three additional months before they are evicted from the city-owned property. It’s the second extension for the food-court vendors, who were initially told they needed to be out by Aug. 10.

George Mikkas, who runs two businesses in the food court, was only marginally relieved to hear the news. What he and the other tenants really need, he says, is money from the city to resettle their businesses.

City Councilwoman Ellen Robertson says she hopes to begin working with the administration to bring in a private firm to assess and administer relocation assistance, although the letter from the management company makes no mention of such an arrangement. Robertson is chairwoman of the City Council Finance Committee.

Launched in the 1980s, 6th Street Marketplace was originally anchored by Thalhimers and Miller & Rhoads, heralded as a downtown savior and celebrated for its high number of minority business owners. The project continued to hemorrhage money until part of it was torn down in 2003. Tenants who left the demolished building were given resettlement money from the city at that time.

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