L A International Marketplace

The City Council will consider a construction permit application tonight for a building at a proposed huge open-air weekend swap meet on a former quarry site on Live Oak Avenue, east of the San Gabriel River Freeway. Arcadia-based Nu-Way Industries Inc. has spent about $1 million on grading and installation of utilities at the 63-acre former quarry site. Over the last 20 years, city officials said, the quarry was filled with non-hazardous dirt and construction refuse from throughout the county.

The City Council will consider a construction permit application tonight for a building at a proposed huge open-air weekend swap meet on a former quarry site on Live Oak Avenue, east of the San Gabriel River Freeway. Arcadia-based Nu-Way Industries Inc. has spent about $1 million on grading and installation of utilities at the 63-acre former quarry site. Over the last 20 years, city officials said, the quarry was filled with non-hazardous dirt and construction refuse from throughout the county.

Managers at the L.A. International Marketplace in Irwindale have given vendors a break on their rent, and the city has agreed to negotiate a discount on the business license fee for the swap meet operator. Managers of the 64-acre outdoor swap meet, which opened in July, asked the city for financial relief, including exempting unoccupied vendor stations from a $5-per-space monthly business license fee. Vendor space occupancy is running about 50% among the 893 spaces.

Developers who want to build a raceway next to the L.A. International Marketplace said they are optimistic about their chances after the Irwindale City Council's initial response. The proposed raceway would include a 3/8-mile oval track, a 6,500-seat stadium, and would cost about $3 million to build, said Dennis Constanzo of Oak Knoll Group, a Los Angeles development firm that is jointly planning the raceway with NuWay Industries, the company that built the marketplace.

It's not quite the football stadium that Irwindale once dreamed of, but Los Angeles County's biggest swap meet is about to spring from the remains of a quarry pit, now a palm-lined expanse of asphalt. L.A. International Marketplace will open this weekend, a 64-acre weekend swap meet built atop a former quarry. Its size and number of vendors--more than 800 are expected to be set up by today--will make it the region's second-biggest swap meet, exceeded only by the Orange County Marketplace.

It's not quite the football stadium that Irwindale once dreamed of, but Los Angeles County's biggest swap meet is about to spring from the remains of a quarry pit, now a palm-lined expanse of asphalt. L.A. International Marketplace will debut this weekend, a 64-acre weekend "super" swap meet built atop a former quarry.