The new owner of the Lebanon Farmers Market said he doesn’t plan to make any major changes to the historic property, although he intends to maximize the revenue stream, fill the empty spaces and “raise the value to the tenants.”
Jared Mizrahi, owner of the PCI Auction Group in Manheim, bought the 33,000-square-foot property at 35 S. 8th St., Lebanon, at a Dec. 30 auction for $1.35 million. He told LebTown in a Jan. 3 interview that he doesn’t want to change the formula.
“I’m not a developer. I don’t want to knock it down and build apartments. That’s not what I do,” he said.
The first floor market area has 22 vendor stands, 21 of which are occupied, while the third floor is occupied by Schaylor Brewing Co. restaurant.
Mizrahi said he wasn’t familiar with the market before buying it but was persuaded to make a bid after touring the site.
“I thought it was super cool,” he said. “It has great character, great bones. It falls into the kind of things that I like to invest in – multi-use commercial, weird to some degree, with complex problems to some degree – a difficult nut to crack. A challenge – that’s the kind of thing that I like.
Read More: Historic Lebanon Farmers Market is scheduled for auction in December
Mizrahi, 36, said his primary career is auctioneer, while investing in commercial real estate is “a side gig for me.”
Taking properties that need work and figuring out how to maximize their potential is “kind of fun – I got addicted to it,” he said. “I enjoy the process.”
He was hooked once he walked through the market house prior to the auction, Mizrahi said.
“The numbers worked for me. It’s just that simple,” he said. “It fits the criteria of what I’m looking for. It’s super cool and it’s important to the community. It’s a win-win.”
The market house was renovated to the tune of $6.5 million in 2006. L&H Auctions Inc., which hosted Monday’s auction, said the property nets $160,000 annually.
He said he hasn’t returned to the site since winning it at auction, but he has spoken to some stand holders and has some ideas about how to proceed.
“I don’t know that it needs a lot of work,” Mizrahi said. “We need to maximize the revenue. There are places that aren’t rented, or aren’t being utilized to their full potential. That’s the challenge, how do we fix that?”
Some stand holders mentioned that they would like to see better marketing, he said, and he plans to accommodate them – but he doesn’t expect to rebrand the facility in any way. “I like the branding the way it is,” he said. “It’s generating revenue, and it’s contributing to the community.”
Off the top of his head, Mizrahi said he believes some empty spaces on the second floor could be used for one or two more market stands, and there is some office space that could be rented out. “There’s also a banquet space that doesn’t seem like it’s ever been advertised well,” he added. “I haven’t landed on a plan yet on how I want to handle that … rent it out or take it on myself.”
“I need to do another walkthrough to see what else is there that’s underutilized.”
Mizrahi has no plans at present to raise the rent for tenants. However, he said, “the first thing I need to do is raise the value. Raise the value to the tenants in the sense of giving them more bang for their buck. Get some things updated.”
Mizrahi laughed when asked about the ghosts of the Blue-Eyed Six – six killers who were imprisoned in the former prison on the site in the late 1870s, five of whom were hanged there – who are rumored to haunt the market house to this day.
“I learned the history of it,” he said, adding that the property’s caretaker told him he hears all kinds of strange noises there at night. In any case, Mizrahi said, he’s not worried about the ghosts.
According to recent reports, Lebanon Mayor Sherry Capello said she’s excited to see Mizrahi investing in the city, and she’s glad the building will remain in use as a market.
Mizrahi also recently invested in downtown Lancaster, buying the Place Marie Mall last April for $2.75 million and announcing plans to spend a similar amount on renovations.
Work there is nearly complete, he said, and won’t distract his attention away from the Lebanon market.
“I have put a lot of time into Place Marie already,” he told LebTown. “I’ve gotten it to almost where I want it to be with one exception, and that’s renovating the second, third, and fourth floors on the Orange Street side. I’m going through the motions of getting that done, and my construction team has submitted permit requests to do that. Everything else is pretty much done.”
Former owners of the market, Dunamis Holdings LLC of Richland, bought the property in March 2022 for $1.675 million. Dunamis Holdings partner Jason Schwalm told LebTown in November that they were selling to devote more attention to their Myerstown-based family business, Olde Mill Cabinetry.
Additional information about the Lebanon Farmers Market is available online at lebanonfarmersmarket.com.
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