Ideas for a new antique cooperative in Texas

Good afternoon,
We are trying to open an antique cooperative in Round Top, Texas, which we would like to run year round and are having difficulty getting dealers to commit. The location is excellent with high traffic and lots of folks coming to Round Top year round looking for somewhere to shop for antiques and unique finds. Any advice or pointers would be greatly appreciated.
We have about 3,000 SF of space that is heated and cooled which we are renting for $1.50 per SF and about 5,000 SF warehouse space which is not heated and cooled that we are renting for $1.25 per SF. We need it to be dealer run with each dealer working a few days a month in order to stay open. We have had tons of excellent feedback as we were open for this year's Fall Antique Show for the Round Top/Warrenton area but now need to keep on moving forward.

Thanks and have a good day

Wow that sounds like a nice opportunity for dealers in the area - hopefully you will catch the eyes of some interested local parties through this forum. Good luck!

I'm curious to know, have you had any feedback from the dealers who won't commit as to why not?

There's nothing more delightful than a well-run Antique Mall! Good luck on your venture. :)

From stopping at roadside Antique Malls every chance I get, I'd like to make an observation ... those that are most successful have contract restrictions on what can be sold: genuine antiques >100 years old and/or higher quality, collectible vintage items. Otherwise they can advertise "Antique Mall" on the sign but (once the choice items are sold) it too easily becomes a glorified Flea Market.

How specific is your contract, Kielgoose? Perhaps that may be why dealers have not yet committed to your project.

they don't really give us an outright answer as to why they won't sign up. A few of them are pretty critical on the site itself and make demands on what needs to be done to the building itself like new paint, covering up the pegboard on the walls, etc. But they don't say that those things have to be done in order for them to move in.

We don't even make it to any discussion in terms of our contract. Our manager is working on one for us to use and we have considered limiting what can be sold there.

I found this discussion "Advice On Opening An Antique Mall" and thought you might find the responses interesting. :)

After thinking about it for awhile, it seems like you may have put the cart before the horse. A Co-op is a group of people working together for a common goal - in this case, to create an antique mall. It seems that you have put the goal before the group, and created the mall first. Prospective dealers are being asked to form the co-op, without having been given a chance to have input on the location or the building or the terms. Are you offering these prospective dealers any say in things? If not, it may look to them like you're just trying to get free labor for what is not really a co-op after all.