GOING WITH THE FLOW
ended up being the highest and best use of the property. We were all skeptical at first, but it turned out to be inge- nious. He created, The Festival Flea Market. Today, it has 700 booths in an indoor, air-con- ditioned space. We were offered the payphones and the phone business for each vendor’s booth and accepted.
Our first large call center customer was an insurance company from New York. They signed up for 40 agents for three
Festival Flea Market
months. It turned out to be eight. We expand- ed our facility on hope and a prayer and just like that (fingers snap) it was filled. An employee of their company moved in with us and we started taking calls. We learned a lot in serving them. the main thing we learned was the need for a payroll loan. We have to pay our people weekly and wait for payment from the customer 60-90 days later. It was a nervous feeling until it was paid. With the profits, we bought the building we occupied. THE FESTVAL FLEA MARKET 1988, my brother Harry decided to retire in South Florida, with his son Danny, and their families. To keep their feet in the real estate business, they purchased a large retail space (400,000 sq. ft.) on Sample Road near the Florida Turnpike. It was destined to become an outlet mall. The idea was solid, and anchor tenants were already secured. Things were looking good. All they needed were some small tenants to fill in the blanks. They made the purchase and start- ed preparations. Then the sky fell. Within the same demographic on the other side of town, a huge track of land was announced to become the Sawgrass Mills, a giant outlet mall. Reports said it would become one of the largest shopping malls in the nation. All of Harry’s anchor tenants canceled leaving him with a huge empty property and no revenues. I was in no position to bail them out, but I did the best I could. I had no idea if I would ever see the money again. Eventually I did. Some of the best ideas come out of desper- ation. Harry’s son Danny came up with what
The payphone business disappeared after a few years when cellphones became popular. But the phone service was a viable business for many years thereafter. Each vendor needed a credit card machine and those needed physi- cal phone lines. We registered a new company name, The Festival Telephone Service. At the same time, we also registered as a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC). We were surprised to find out that this new designation also gave
us a negotiation tool to use in purchasing all of our telecom services. Additionally, being a phone carrier gave us a government designation giving us precedence during emergencies like hurricanes. By expanding our services, we had the very important added bene-
Max Kelley
fit of being able to afford a full-time telecom technician, Paul Slack, a very talented engi- neer. Today, he is Director of Telecom for our entire enterprise. December, 15th, 2000, two of our fami- lies hit the jackpot. My brother Harry made a $100 bet on the Florida lottery, using one of the machines his vendor installed, and won
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