OCALA, FL (352Today.com) – If you watched Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, you may not have known that some of the film’s props came from an Ocala antique mall. Warner Bros. stopped by Diggers Antique Mall years ago and left with furniture and other pieces to use on set. The same store also sold items to Universal and to the Appleton Museum of Art for local productions.
That chapter is ending.
Diggers Antique Mall, at 1811 N. Pine Avenue in Ocala, is closing after nearly 12 years at the location. Co-owners John, Annie and Wendell Atchison said the landlord listed the building for sale and it sold within a day or two. The Atchisons received a 90-day notice to vacate. They were told they have until the end of the week to clear out.
“The landlord sold the building,” John Atchison said. “He put it up for sale, and it was listed just for a day or two, and sold.”
They did not see it coming. The same thing happened years earlier when they operated downtown. That time they had only 45 days to leave.
“I’m wore out,” Annie Atchison said.
John described the situation matter-of-factly.
“Just another thing. Business as usual. I’m too busy to be sad,” he said.
Annie was more emotional, already missing the regular customers. Most have found new spots, John said, noting that at least two new antique malls are opening in the area, including one on State Road 40.
“I’m very sad. I miss my regulars already. We had 60 or 70 dealers with booths in here, and they have to go find another place to set up,” Annie said.
Longtime dealer Don Teed, who set up when Diggers opened around 2016 and specialized in primitives (Items created by hobbyists or the self-taught) while his wife handled furniture, and worked the front with Annie on Wednesdays and Thursdays for a decade. He called the closing a loss of a job as much as a business. He already has booths at the Antique Emporium and in Wildwood and plans to move into a new space on South Pine.
“I took care of any customers that needed to be taken care of. Annie and I worked together for 10 years. Every Wednesday and Thursday,” Teed said.
According to Edina Realty, the 8,610-square-foot building originally listed for $1,295,000 and sold for $1,150,000, with the sale closing on July 16, 2026.
John said that Steel Crafters purchased it; the company plans to gut it to the skeleton and convert it into a showroom for steel buildings. The Atchisons said the sale price reflected a strong local real estate market rather than any slowdown in the antique business itself.
“We were doing really well. We had a good year going,” Teed said.
John agreed the mall had done “fair the entire time it was open.”
John and his father started in the antique trade around 2008 after years in construction. The family had come to the Ocala area earlier, drawn by grandparents and work as tree climbers. Diggers grew out of that. The Atchisons also own Ocala Auction and plan to open an antique auction house on Jacksonville Road in about two months. If they find the right space, they intend to reopen a mall similar to Diggers, just as they did after the downtown location closed. The last search took six months.
Everything from the current store is gone. No more merchandise remains for sale.
Annie asked that one message go out to the community.
“Just tell everybody thanks for patronizing us and visiting us over the years,” she said.
John added simply that they will miss the dealers and the customers.
“We’ll miss our dealers immensely, our customers and our dealers,” he said.
