Please help welcome our newest WSB sponsor, the White Center Swap Meet and Flea Market. As we reported earlier this fall, the former Southgate Skate Center (map) has been renovated to become the Southgate Event Center, which is home to the White Center Swap Meet and Flea Market – the only one of its kind in the West Seattle/White Center area. After several weeks in “soft launch” mode, the Swap Meet is ready to welcome you to its official grand opening – as it launches expanded winter hours, just in time for holiday bargain shopping: 8:30 am to 4:30 pm (12/6/08 update – hours are now 10 am-4 pm), Saturdays and Sundays. In true swap meet/flea market tradition, you never know who’s going to be selling what (like the items you see at left), or what treasures you might find. Operator Dean Burgess invites you to stop by and check it out – there’s no admission, and the building is open to the public. As for the Southgate Event Center itself: Now that the historic 13,000-square-foot center has been remodeled, you can book it for parties and other events, starting in January (here’s more information from the center’s website). There’s an attached kitchen, and a small business-office space upstairs. Free space also is available to nonprofits (by appointment only). Dean and his team say they are “proud and thrilled to be retaining this building and returning it to its use as a community outpost and meeting place.” Drop by and say hi this weekend during the grand opening, 8:30 am-4:30 pm both days — 9646 17th Ave SW (map), barely a block over the line from West Seattle, and immediately west of the heart of the 16th SW business district. Welcome to the White Center Swap Meet and Flea Market; we’re glad to have them on the WSB sponsor team – you can see the latest lineup here, along with information on how to become part of it!