- A self-storage center called First Storage is under construction and will open in January.
- The property previously housed the Fayetteville Flea Market, the Great American Market Place flea market and the Raeford Road Flea Market.
- The building also housed Southern Design Furniture, which started operating in 1988 in one of the stands at the flea market.
A self-storage center is replacing the longtime Fayetteville flea market that spawned a locally owned furniture business from one of its stands.
Miami-based investment company Volta Global First Storage is building a storage center at 4909 Raeford Road, next door to the CVS Pharmacy at the corner of Raeford and Hope Mills Road. This is where the Raeford Road Flea Market operates.
This is also where the Southern Design Furniture and Gifts store began operating in a booth at the back of the flea market before expanding into the building.
People will soon be having furniture on the property again.
Volta Global plans to open First Storage by the end of January, Operations Manager Matt Baker said. 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.
It plans to hire two full-time workers and one part-time worker at wages between $17 and $20 per hour. People interested in a job should call 910-624-7011.
In addition to the storage facility, the company also plans to operate a Penske Truck Rental service and a materials handling shop on site, Baker said.
“We love the area,” he said. “Overall the growth in the South has been staggering. Fayetteville is growing and the surrounding communities are growing,” which is why Volta Global chose to come here.
A long history as a flea market
Fayetteville Observer archives say a flea market has operated on the property since the 1980s (if not earlier). Called the Fayetteville Flea Market until 1989, the new owner of this market changed its name to the Great American Market Place flea market while making improvements to the property.
It was still called by that name in 2007, according to Google Street View images of the flea market’s signs. However, by June 2012 the name was changed to Raeford Road Flea Market.
Later in 2014, the flea market sign was removed (although the 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 tent spurred a furniture sale that went bankrupt.
Furniture business grew from flea market stands
Alan Billings and his wife, Karen, opened the Southern Design Furniture store in a booth in the back of the flea market owned by Alan’s parents.
“We opened during the recession in 2008,” Alan Billings told The Fayetteville Observer in 2017.
“At that point we were still trying to keep the flea market alive,” he said. “Around 2011, when we expanded and introduced branded furniture, we saw an increase in sales.”
By 2017, the store occupied 26,500 square feet of the building and the couple had six employees at the furniture store.
The Billingses sold the flea market to Volta Global for $3.674 million in September 2022, according to Cumberland County property records.
Investing in Fayetteville
Volta Global spent $5.552 million to rehabilitate and expand the existing building and construct three additional self-storage buildings, Baker said.
“That building in particular, the traffic on Raeford Road is incredible. So it’s a really visible, highly visible site. It was a no-brainer to get that,” he said.
Baker said demand for self-storage increased during the Covid-19 pandemic, when people began packing up their homes and putting their belongings into storage.
“We have a lot of supplies in America,” he said.
He said small business owners also use their own warehouses and expects good demand from military personnel stationed in Fort Liberty.
Demand for self-storage has fallen since the peak of the pandemic, but occupancy rates remain strong, he said.
In North Carolina, Volta Global has opened or will soon open other self-storage centers in Sanford, Burlington, Greensboro and North Wilkesboro, as well as in Alabama, South Carolina and Texas, Baker said.
Senior North Carolina reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@fayobserver.com.
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