Market 5 Gallery (www.market5gallery.org), the North Hall tenant for over 30 years, is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit and is required to file a form 990 annually with the IRS. A clear view of Market 5’s finances has proved difficult because its tax filings have been intermittent, often late and the short form contains very little detail.

Market 5 Gallery has as one of its principal and founding functions to “to provide our patrons with theater, dance, music, poetry, plus our weekly outdoor arts and crafts festival.” John Harrod, its executive director since its inception, with a long history of support on the Hill, has had a contentious relationship with some segments of the community, among which are the Eastern Market Community Advisory Committee  (EMCAC).

Market 5 successfully sued the District in 2001 when the Office of Property Management (OPM) and EMCAC sought its eviction. In December 2006, Market 5 Gallery allowed its lease to lapse.

With the projected changes in market management scheduled for this summer, EMCAC has renewed its efforts to achieve the 1998 legislated goal of placing the North Hall’s management and revenue under “unified market management.” EMCAC has contended that control of management and the revenue of the North Hall would help to balance a growing deficit and allow for the Eastern Market’s long term economic viability.

Harrod, who has resisted every effort to take over his North Hall business activities, recently shed some light on Market 5’s financial operations. Harrod points out correctly that what revenues he has collected over the years were his as part of his arrangements with the District.

With an expired lease, a lapsed settlement agreement from the court case and a month-to-month status, it remains unclear on what basis Harrod continues to collect stall rentals even as OPM has made no effort to alter these arrangements. Market 5 continues to assign vendors stalls each weekend, monitors the quality of new vendors’ product with committee review and sets rates which produce its revenue.

A review of Market 5’s 2007 revenues and expenses is more opaque than transparent, very much a seat-of-the-pants exercise. Harrod maintains that Market 5 took in “about $100,000” in 2007. In the years 2002-2004, for which there is IRS compliance, Market 5 had revenues of $98,665, $95,646 and $98,221. Harrod says, “I believe that I filed in ’05,” but concedes he is “late for ’06.”

In an arrangement with Tom Rall who operates the Flea Market on Sunday and subleases the North Hall and Plaza, Harrod produced incomplete vendor rental receipts that average $1,100 weekly. However, using Harrod’s own figures of Saturday revenue averaging  $1,800 weekly while taking into account corresponding dips in income due to weather and slow winter stall rentals, Market 5 revenues are more likely in the $125,000 to  $150,000 range.

Grants were a strong source of income in the past for Market 5. Previously arts and other grants provided more than $30,000 (37.4 percent) of its revenue. When asked why they were no longer a part of Market 5’s income, Harrod said, “We don’t have the time.”

Expenses are difficult to determine, but payroll, utilities and maintenance constitute its bulk with half a dozen positions payroll-related. According to Harrod, rent is $25,200 annually.

The Hill Rag was provided with copies of Saturday cash payouts for 35 weeks and of the approximately $25,000 all were for payroll and maintenance. Although Harrod claims labor costs are about the same as a percentage (57 percent) of information reported in a 1993 annual report, documentation Harrod provided does not support this. There are no line item salaries listed in the IRS fillings.

These numbers do not include what salary Harrod currently pays himself, and he declined to provide that information. However, what Harrod insists is that he has never taken a salary of more than $450 per week since he founded Market 5 in the 1970s. The reason according to Harrod is simple: in the best of times that is all he could afford to pay himself.

In fairness to Harrod, these are the arrangements the District made with him long before today’s “golden age” began at the Eastern Market. Market 5’s efforts have undeniably contributed to the market’s success. Harrod is quick to recall that when he was given the keys to the North Hall in the ‘70s, it was a small District-owned garage and storage area filled with parked trucks and broken parking meters and “with 1 inch of gook covering the floor.”

Harrod contends bitterly that EMCAC has set out repeatedly to “steal my business and destroy Market 5.” He points to what he calls EMCAC’s previous role in using its influence to deny him what was once a strong second source of income (political fundraisers and receptions).

According to Harrod, Market 5 is no longer able to secure ABC licensing for special events because it lacks a Certificate of Occupancy which the District has not granted. Harrod claims this is because the North Hall lacks the basic amenities of running water and toilets, heating and AC.  

It Takes Two to Tango
While Market 5 Gallery, currently under partial renovation, has limited access for the wider arts community, its Thursday night tango group, The Eastern Market Milonga, is thriving under the direction of founder Bill Griffiths. Griffiths, a creative writing and English teacher at Walter Johnson HS in Bethesda, has run tango classes and dance sessions at the North Hall since 2004. And why the tango? Griffiths says that he reached a point in his life where “I just wanted to dance” and took up tango. Currently Thursday tango ranges from 40 to 100 devotees.

“I find it mesmerizing,” says Venus Eagle between dances on a recent March night.

Jake Spatz, who teaches intermediate dancing, maintains there is a difficult to define “connection that happens and once it does then it can become an addiction.” He traces his own involvement (he has missed only three or four nights since 2004) to sitting in a bar in Brooklyn in 2001 and watching a brief tango lesson which totally captivated him. Spatz points out that tango and its music and not just the dance are part of the whole culture in Argentina.

Tango classes are held in the first two hours each Thursday beginning at 7 p.m. A lesson is $10. Classes have been held at temperatures as high as the mid 90s, and Spatz recalls a February 2007 evening when it was so cold in the North Hall that he worried whether he had permanently damaged his feet. Once the teaching is finished, the balance of the evening is all glide and choreographed dancing, often lasting long past the hour of 1 p.m. For information on the classes and tango, contact Griffiths at tangobuddha@gmail.com.

A Market 5 board member, Griffiths, his passion for the tango and loyalty to Market 5 fiercely clear, expresses great frustration that the plans for restoration of the North Hall do not include a permanent and quality dance floor which would be energy-saving with radiant heating under what are already plans to tear up and redo the floor. “It’s penny-wise and pound-foolish,” Griffith says in pointing out the recurring and unneeded costs, as well as deterioration of a proposed portable maple floor that is constantly being set up and taken down.

Construction Progress and Contract
The final phase of construction contract has been awarded but remains unannounced as it has moved to the DC Council for review along with a coordinated contract for upgrading the streetscape at the Eastern Market. These contracts must have council approval since each exceeds $1 million.

Matt Hussman, the de facto market manager of Eastern Market who is the liaison from OPM, reports the new window mock ups for the restoration were placed in the North Hall for public comment and review during March. The final decision rests with the DC Historic Preservation Board and is expected in mid-April. The new roof is expected to be completed on May 14.