Leticia Gandara sold artesanía Mexicana out of the same space at Long Bazaar for 28 years.
During the week, the indoor market’s aisles are quiet. On the weekends, crowds bring the space to life.
Quinceañera dresses hang from racks beside stalls selling candy, furniture and jewelry. Barber shops are just a few doors down from a botánica. Neighbors lean across counters to talk, the way people do when they have shared a space for years.
Gandara and other vendors learned in April they have until May 31 to clear out. The Northside market at 318 E. Long Ave. in Fort Worth had been sold. Vendors said they received no warning before the letter arrived, leaving many with weeks to relocate their businesses.
“De sopetón,” Gandara said, describing how the news of closure came for many vendors, including herself.
Out of nowhere.
Public records show the buyer as Goodwill Industries of Fort Worth Inc., a regional nonprofit that operates thrift stores and job training programs across the metroplex.
Built in 1955, Long Bazaar stretches over 5.5 acres and was appraised at just under $4 million this year by the Tarrant Appraisal District.
A deed recorded April 20 with the Tarrant County clerk shows the property transferred from the Nguyen Children Trust to Goodwill on April 17. The purchase and sale agreement dates to Dec. 11 — roughly four months before vendors received notice.
Goodwill North Central Texas confirmed the acquisition to the Fort Worth Report, announcing plans to transform the 90,000-square-foot property into a multiuse facility. Former owners declined to comment.
The site will include a second outlet store, donation center, transportation hub and a job resource center offering job placement services, digital skills training and access to virtual credential programs, according to the nonprofit. The facility is expected to open in 2027 and create an estimated 70 jobs.
“This investment reflects our continued commitment to expanding access to job training and employment opportunities across Fort Worth,” said David Cox, president and CEO of Goodwill North Central Texas. “We are proud to bring additional resources and services to this community.”
The closure letter, signed by Long Bazaar Management, cited rising maintenance costs including roof and air conditioning repairs, the loss of commercial insurance coverage and difficulty operating profitably since the passing of a “Mrs. Kim” in 2018.
Norma Esparza, who operated Somar, a health and beauty shop at the bazaar for 14 years, identified Mrs. Kim as the wife of the previous owner. When Kim died, her husband, Tom, took over, Esparza said.
“There was more order when she was here,” Esparza said. “When he took over there was more disorder.”
Inside Zairys Artesanías, Gandara stood mid-conversation with someone on a ladder pulling down merchandise, surrounded by rows of hand-painted pottery of all different shades — a collection she doesn’t know how she will sell when the bazaar closes.
“They should have warned us at least two, three months in advance,” Gandara said.
“We’re renters. We need to find a place.”
Most vendors have been operating month to month for years with no formal lease, Esparza said. She signed a one-year contract when she first arrived, but said no vendor to her knowledge has had a written contract since.
Maintenance problems had built up before the letter arrived, Gandara said. She pointed to rows of pottery and vases, then to the ceiling above them — water damage had ruined some of her merchandise and what couldn’t be salvaged would have to be thrown out.
Esparza said the roof leaked for every rainy season she could remember, along with regular rent increases. She started paying around $350 to $400 a month when she arrived and was paying $1,300 in her final months.
“Every time it rained the water got in and ruined our things,” Esparza said. “They always said they were going to fix the roof, but it was always bad.”
“The building is falling apart because he never did anything,” Gandara said.
For vendors like Gandara, the 30-day notice has meant scrambling to find storage, cut prices and figure out where to go. The letter offered current tenants 50% off May rent. Esparza said she and several other vendors have not yet paid May’s rent and plan to ask management about the deposits they put down when they first moved in.
“The majority of us lived off of this,” Gandara said. “Off the sales, off whatever came in.”
A few stalls down, Isabel Pérez stood behind the counter of her shop, where she has sold Mexican candy, art and botánica supplies for 20 years. Her children grew up in these aisles.
“We’re all sad here,” Pérez said. “We’ve shared so much over the years. More than anything it’s the way they’re doing it — they didn’t give us time to find another space.”
Marlene Trejo opened her gift and novelty shop at the bazaar about a year and a half ago. Trejo said the closure was unexpected. Many vendors just recently restocked merchandise shortly before the letter came.
“Where are we going to put all of it?” she said, gesturing around to baskets of teddy bear plushies, flower arrangements and novelty balloons packed into every corner.
None of the three vendors knew who purchased the building. Rumors spread among vendors and on social media.
What many now hope for is to find a space where they can relocate together — somewhere that functions as Long Bazaar did. Independent storefronts are harder to find and far more expensive, Esparza said.
“If we found a place where we could all be together again, it would be much easier to let people know where we are,” Esparza said. “That’s what we’re hoping for.”
Gandara’s future is uncertain. She has decades of inventory and no clear place to take it. What comes next isn’t clear — only that she’ll face whatever it is.
“I’m going to try to find another space,” Gandara said. “If not, sell from my house. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Editor’s note: The majority of the interviews for this story were conducted in Spanish and translated into English by the reporter.
Nicole Williams Quezada is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at nicole.williams@fortworthreport.org.
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This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
