Urban Mining is moving to Gillham

The streetcar might not be sailing through midtown (yet), but property owners are nevertheless jacking up rents as if they can hear its bell dinging in the distance.

That bell hath tolled for Urban Mining. The vintage market — a much-loved destination for antiques, furniture, midcentury art, and more — will pack up and move out of its current space, at 3923 Main Street, early next year.

“Our building was sold to a developer, and we’re pretty much priced out of the situation,” says Heather London, co-owner of Urban Mining. “The lease ends in January, and they proposed to double the rent. There’s no ill will, but that wasn’t gonna work for us.” 

There’s good news, though: London, co-owner Susan Hartnett, and the 35 or so dealers who ply their wares inside Urban Mining, have already settled on a new location. In February, they’ll reopen at 3105 Gillham, in a space formerly occupied by Bitterman’s Eye Candy.  Their new landlord is Butch Rigby, who bought the building last year from the Bitterman’s folks.

“KC is kind of pricey right now, so we feel pretty fortunate to have gotten hooked up with Butch,” London says. “He seems to like small businesses like ours, and he has a pretty community-minded approach to things. I feel like he went out of his way to make this happen for us.”

Urban Mining’s new neighbors include a diverse cluster of enterprises, such as Holy Cow Music & Market, Oddities Prints, Maker Village KC, Oddities Prints, 816 Bicycle Collective, Remodel Moore, Two Tone Press and the new breakfast-and-lunch corner joint Attitude. 

“There’s a lot of of cool businesses and art cooperatives over there already, and we’re excited to be a part of that,” London says. 

The new space is roughly the same size as the Main Street location, though only one floor instead of two. 

“We’re bummed about them [Urban Mining] leaving,” says Diane Burnette, executive director of the Main Street community development organization MainCor. “We were trying to help them find another space around here, but they have a rent threshold they had to keep low in order for their model to work.” 

The last hurrah on Main will be the first weekend of January. (Urban Mining is only open the first weekend of every month.) Come February 1, it will debut on Gillham.

“We were always proud to be part of something good on Main,” London says. “Now, we’re looking forward to being part of something good at our new spot.”