When Jorgen Wong hosted the first Underground Market in February, he only had one mission in mind — to bring Chinatown Centre back from the verge of bankruptcy.
Chinatown Centre, located at 222 Spadina Ave, is a mall in the heart of the Toronto neighborhood that mostly sits empty. Wong said people in the community have strong emotional attachments to the shopping plaza and sought to bring it back to life.
“We found that this building was on the verge of bankruptcy in January. Then in February, since it was the start of the year of the dragon, we did our promotional thing called 'The Strength of a Dynasty,’” he said.
Running an arts market in the middle of a blizzard is a challenge, but Wong said he made it work by reaching out to local “celebrities” from across the city and advertising on social media.
After seeing the success of the February market, he said he’s been trying to run a different market every two to three weeks. He’s been using the profits to bring in new tenants to Chinatown Centre.
“I use every market as funding to fix up the mall. So every time you see an event, there is an upgrade. One of our upgrades is this really cool store called Garment Service that used to be abandoned."
Contrary to other arts market founders in Toronto — like the Welcome Market, Good Friends Market and the Hippie Market Life — Wong said he doesn’t have a background in going to, or running similar ventures.
“It's really funny. I have no prior experience or prior training in this. I'm a rough and tumble guy.” he said. “I had experience running some construction teams and I had more experience in finance, but those [careers] don't give you the type of personality to work with all these artists.”
Wong admitted he’s the only one in his family who didn’t pursue a law career.
Coming into this business wide-eyed and eager to succeed has given him the opportunity to welcome vendors — both small and big — with open arms.
Wong explained he doesn’t ever reject vendors, even those with no event experience.
“I want those vendors to join our event,” he said. “We try to be the most accessible market in downtown Toronto. That’s our philosophy.”
Compared to other markets that are similar sized, he said he charges vendors below market rate to rent a table at the 222. Eighty-eight dollars compared to $150 — which is the going rate for other markets.
“I've really enjoyed meeting new smaller vendors because no matter how big a vendor is, they all started as a small vendor,” he explained.
“Getting the opportunity to see what they do, provide them suggestions on how to advertise and watch their business develop is probably the most rewarding thing for me to see at the Spadina Market. Having a business go from zero to 100 is fantastic.”
For vendors who already have a store in Chinatown Centre, or for artists coming from the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD), he doesn’t charge at all.
“I try to bring in as many people who say, 'I'd love to do it. I would love to get a sense of what it's like to run a retail store, but I haven't had the time to get prepared or I don't feel confident that I'm going to make my fees back.'”
One substantial hurdle Wong has run into time and time again is his clash with the upstairs management at Chinatown Centre. It’s a saga that has been well documented on his Instagram account.
More than once, The Underground Market has clashed with security and has been hit with claims that it’s damaging the property.
“Initially [our relationship] was good. We worked together for the Chinatown BIA. Then I think over time it's kind of devolved and it's [become] fairly confrontational."
It’s a fight Wong said is ongoing, but he has no plans to vacate Chinatown Centre.
As for the future of The Underground Market, he said he plans to keep running it all winter long. Being fortunate enough to have an indoor space, he can stay open during other markets’ off-seasons.
“We're actually countercyclical. We do really well in the fall and winter,” he said.”We're always going to be at a disadvantage unless we get access to the outside. But in the winter, school's back and no one fights with us.”
