Photo courtesy of MASC Hospitality Group
After initially hosting its seemingly last season in 2023, the Bronx Night market will be returning with more programming in mind for the neighborhood.
Created by MASC Hospitality Group (MHG), Bronx Night Market will re-emerge as a cultural hub for food, music and shopping in the borough on April 6.
Last year, Marco Shalma, founder of MHG, announced the decision to close down the popular market. Shalma noted that there were a number of challenges that resulted in the market’s closure, including sponsorship challenges, limited local endorsement and issues surrounding Fordham Plaza, where the market has been hosted since its inception.
“Past the pandemic, the condition of the plaza started deteriorating, not only from the facility itself, which is under the responsibility of DOB, and there was deterioration all over the facility, like the benches, there’s a lot of graffiti, bokeh glasses, stuff like that,” Shalma told amNewYork Metro. “There’s been violence, there’s been a few incidents where our vendors were attacked. So all of that combined with the fact that the illegal vendors have been in the plaza made it very difficult for us to work with our vendors and to guarantee their safety.”
However, hearing from the community how much the market would be missed as well as questions from local officials asking what it would take to get the market to return, Shalma said that really threw the decision into a loop.
“We’ve had more than 10,000 comments, DMs and emails hitting us up from the community post the announcement and everybody was so supportive from the Bronx, but the thing that really touched me really kind of undermines the decision was the fact that so many people say: why can’t we have nice things in the Bronx?” said Shalma. “It really touched myself, my partner and my team in a way that didn’t think wasn’t going to do that because of how much love the community has for that and…
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