After a four-year hiatus, the founder of the original Richmond Night Market plans to restart the annual Asian open-air bazaar.
But if the City of Richmond approves Raymond Cheung’s proposal to stage a comeback this summer with an Asian market near the River Rock Casino, Richmond will have two competing Asian markets.
The new kid on the block – Paul Cheung’s Summer Night Market – doesn’t think there’s room in Richmond for two Asian markets. He has already lost five of his food vendors, who decided to go back to his competitor.
“Having two is definitely going to water down both sides,” Paul Cheung said. “The event has grown popular mainly because of its sheer size. It’s kind of like the PNE. Vancouver would not approve two PNEs, because what’s going to happen is it will reduce the size of it.”
But Raymond Cheung, who founded the first night market in 2000, disagreed.
“Competition is good,” he said. “It’s healthy.”
His proposed revival will be subject to a public hearing March 19 to consider a temporary three-year rezoning he will need to set up on an empty 18-acre site south of River Rock Casino.
Cheung’s market has not run since 2007. It was suspended when his company, Target Events, was unable to renew the lease for the market’s venue location off Vulcan Way in Richmond.
Into the vacuum stepped Paul Cheung of Lions Communications Inc., who managed to secure the same site, and in 2008 launched a new market, which featured many of the same vendors who had been with the Richmond Night Market.
The Cheungs, who aren’t related, shared more than just a last name: Paul Cheung originally called his new market the Richmond Summer Night Market.
Raymond Cheung sued for copyright infringement, not only for the use of the name, but also for Paul Cheung’s use of a vendor site plan that was strikingly similar to the one used by the Richmond Night Market.
The BC Supreme Court ruled in Raymond Cheung’s favour, saying his event had copyright protection. That forced Paul Cheung to change the name of his new market to the Summer Night Market. Both have been popular Richmond cultural events that run from the spring to the fall on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. They feature mostly Asian food, goods and entertainment and draw tens of thousands of people each weekend.
Last year, the Summer Night Market drew more than 22,000 on July 2, 2011. The parking and traffic problems created by those kinds of numbers have been Raymond Cheung’s biggest problem in finding a site to resume the commercial-cultural event he created.
His proposed new location at the north end of No. 3 Road, near the River Rock, would have roughly 1,500 free parking stalls. Because that’s a fraction of a typical daily draw for the night market, the casino has objected to the temporary three-year rezoning Cheung needs, citing fears that people attending the market will use the casino’s parkades, one of which is for Canada Line commuters.
Coun. Bill McNulty, chairman of Richmond’s planning committee, said proximity to the Canada Line station and a nearby bus loop is a selling point for Raymond Cheung’s market because it means more people will be able to use public transit to get there. “Every bus coming out of Richmond to go to Vancouver goes right by that site,” he said. “The public transport option is a very big plus in this one.”
He added that the biggest beneficiary of the night market will be the casino because people will go to the casino after the market closes.
Tourism Richmond CEO Tracy Lakeman said both night markets have been good for tourism. However, her organization is taking no stand on the current rezoning application.
Lakeman said Richmond’s Asian culture is one of the reasons tourists visit the area.
“It assists us with the length of stay. If someone’s coming to Richmond and they’re intrigued by the Asian culture, that will become part of their decision because there’s more to do.”
Last year, Travel + Leisure Magazine named the Summer Night Market one the world’s top night markets in 2011. •
