Richmond market is back, despite legal tussle

The Summer Night Market in Richmond reopened for its third season on the May long weekend, attracting more than 50,000 visitors.

But the dispute between its operator and the owner of the previous night market, called Richmond Night Market, continues with more legal wrangling expected in the coming weeks.

At stake is a lucrative seasonal business that brings in hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue staging what has become a major tourism-generating event for the city. The night market, which runs weekends from the Victoria Day long weekend until the end of September, features food booths, general retail booths and entertainment.

Lions Communications, which operates the Summer Night Market on Vulcan Way, is now the only company with a permit from the City of Richmond to run a night market. But it recently lost a copyright infringement case launched by the former operator.

Target Event Group, which owns the name Richmond Night Market and operated the night market in Richmond between 2000 and 2008, sued the company, preventing it from using its name as well as the previous market’s floor plan that detailed where vendors placed their booths and the stage setup.

Lions Communications is now appealing the January Federal Court decision. Owner Paul Cheung said he is okay with the name change to Summer Night Market, but he does not believe a floor plan can be "intellectual property" and subject to copyright.

Meanwhile, the former operator of the Richmond Night Market, Raymond Cheung, was planning to operate a night market in New Westminster in conjunction with Starlight Casino this summer. The rival night market would have had 230 vendor stalls adjacent to the casino, but Cheung and Starlight pulled out of the venture just days before the permit application was to go before city council in April.

"The city was excited to have a night market," New Westminster city permit manager Beverly Grieve said Thursday. "We certainly expedited the application and were very surprised when it was withdrawn. It [a night market] was adding a new entertainment destination and activity for the residents of New Westminster," she said.

"I was told it was concerns over some of the cost ó they would need [to give the city] a deposit for police costs and bylaw enforcement."

She said the deposit of approximately $180,000 would cover the costs of two police officers on site, instead of the three Richmond requires of its night market operator. Grieve said some of that money would have been returned at the end of the season had they not required bylaw parking enforcement, for instance.

But Raymond Cheung said the amount the city required was more than $250,000 and included extra costs like a public improvement fee. He said it didn’t make sense to pay for two police officers when the casino had plenty of security and cameras at that location.

Another problem was that only 230 vendors could be signed up, considerably fewer than the more than 350 vendors he had at the Richmond Night Market. (Cheung said he left the Richmond night market site in 2008 after the landlord doubled his rent and he has not been able to find a suitable alternative location since.)

He said it was a "tough decision" not to proceed with the New Westminster night market, given that 170 to 200 vendors were signed up and ready to go.

As well, he said the casino had spent a lot of money getting ready, doing a traffic study and land use study. "They spent half a year and had many consultants looking into it. But because of the [city] requirements and only allowing a certain number of booths, it kept us from our only revenue source [the rental of enough vendor booths.]"

Starlight casino spokesman Lui Garcia confirmed costs were the reason the casino pulled out and agreed it had racked up "considerable costs" ó he wouldn’t be more specific ó looking into a night market feasibility proposal on its land in New Westminster.

"The costs just kept escalating. It didn’t make sense for both parties [Starlight and Target Event Group] to continue," he said.

The issue of money also appears to be behind the continuing feud between Target Event Group and Lions Communication.

Although the market is free to the public, it has proven to be a high revenue generating business with vendors forking out thousands of dollars to operate a booth. The cost for a booth rental is between $5,000 to $11,000 at the Summer Night Market in Richmond, according to Summer Night Market event manager David Lo.

"We’re talking 200 to 300 vendors. It’s bigger than the PNE," said Lo.

"It is sour grapes, even the lawsuit [which Raymond Cheung began that is now the subject of an appeal] … You run a big company for eight years and you lose it [the night market in Richmond] because you can’t come to an agreement with the landlord and the city. You aren’t going to be happy."

He added "our company was the first one to step in [to run another night market in Richmond] but we know if we said this would be our last year there would be 100 businesses wanting to take it over because it’s a successful event."

But Raymond Cheung said he didn’t sue over sour grapes but rather a sense of right and wrong.

"I don’t mind anyone else doing a night market as long as they play fair. Taking the other guy’s name and floor plan that’s what I call a hostile takeover. We don’t mind fair competition just don’t ride on our name and success."

kpemberton@vancouversun.com