A longtime Fayetteville flea market that birthed a locally owned furniture business from one of its booths is being replaced with a self-storage center.
Miami-based investment firm Volta Global is building a First Storage storage center at 4909 Raeford Road, next door to the CVS Pharmacy on the corner of Raeford and Hope Mills Road. This is where the Raeford Road Flea Market operated.
It’s also where the Southern Design Furniture and Gifts store got started in a booth in the back of the flea market, before expanding through the building.
People will soon be keeping furniture on the property again.
Volta Global plans to open First Storage by the end of January, said Operations Manager Matt Baker. It will have 83,000 square feet of rental space among 750 units spread across four buildings, Baker said. The main building will be climate-controlled, he said.
He plans to hire two full-time and one part-time worker, with pay in the range of $17 to $20 per hour. People interested in a job should call 910-624-7011.
In addition to the storage facility, the company plans to operate a Penske Truck Rental service and moving supplies store on the site, Baker said.
“We love the area,” he said. “The growth in the South in general is amazing. Fayetteville is growing, and surrounding communities are growing,” so Volta Global chose to come here.
Long history as a flea market
The Fayetteville Observer archive says a flea market had operated on the property since the 1980s (if not before). It was called the Fayetteville Flea Market until 1989, when a new owner changed the name to the Great American Market Place flea market as he made upgrades to the property.
It was still called by that name in 2007, according to Google Street View images of the flea market’s signage. But by June 2012, the name had been changed to the Raeford Road Flea Market.
Then in 2014, the flea market sign was gone (although flea market tables remained outside under an awning). Instead, there were signs for Southern Design Furniture and Southern Design Boutiques. As late as November 2021, the marquee sign advertised flea market booths for rent.
But in October 2022, the marquee promoted a going-out-of-business furniture sale.
Furniture business grew from flea market booth
Alan Billings and his wife, Karen, started the Southern Design Furniture store in a booth in the back of the flea market that Alan’s parents owned.
“We opened during the recession, in 2008,” Alan Billings told The Fayetteville Observer in 2017.
“We were still trying to keep the flea market alive at that point,” he said. “Around 2011, we saw an uptick in sales when we expanded and brought in name-brand furniture.”