When the  Rona hardware closed  their operations on Kingston Road on Nation Road in the city of Ajax, no one imagined that only a year later, when the building went up for sale that  a brand new flea market would breed new life into the landmark building.

The building was bought by Zahid Malik of SLR Development Corp., owners and operators of SRL  Electronics in Scarborough.

 Malik bought the location with the intention of opening a new  SRL Electronic outlet in Ajax  but soon he was approached by a number of vendors from the Pickering Flea Market who had no place to go when the market closed. “they were desperate for a location they had  their  the goods in storage at their homes in basements they were desperate to make a living for themselves and with that in mind I decided to turn the location into  Durham’s new flea market called Active Marketplace”, said Malik.

The Active Marketplace at present has about a hundred and fifty vendors with room for another 50. The people of this area will be happy to know that the cosmetic centre from the old Pickering Market can be found at this location.

The rest of vendors are a mix of electronics, automotive, leather product, jewelry, clothing and footwear, sport memorabilia, cell phones, real estate and much much more.

Lovers of native artwork will be pleased to see and visit Design made by Ladyhawke. She carries a wide range of handcrafted, authentic Native dream catchers, and all things native from trinkets to shoes.

It should be noted that the Marketplace charges monthly rent as opposed to the weekly charges vendors experienced at their previous location. It is the only flea market that charges rent by the month, which translates into a tidy saving when the month contains five weekends – it is common practice for flea market operators to collect rents on weekends.

Malik said that this will give the vendors stability and help

them plan and grow their business.