Two long-standing neighborhood charities are moving this fall after decades at the Hyde Park Shopping Center Plaza.

The Hyde Park Garden Fair and Hyde Park Used Book Sale are moving to Kimbark Plaza after being effectively kicked out by the mall’s owner to make room for outdoor dining for Mahari, a new fusion restaurant is coming this month to 1504 E. 55th St.

This expansion, which adds to the outdoor seating at neighboring Ascione’s Bistro, leaves fundraisers with little room to display their wares.

George Rumsey, who helps organize both sales at the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference (HPKCC), estimates that the book sale has been held on the square since the 1950s and the garden fair since about 1960.

“We are reluctant to leave the mall because both the book sale and the garden fair started here,” Rumsey said. “We have a long association with it and we all feel a certain nostalgia when we leave, but we have to deal with the reality of the current situation.”

Gerald McSwiggan, director of public affairs at the University of Chicago, which owns the mall, reiterated in a statement that the move better meets retail needs.

“It has been a pleasure hosting the events over the past few years and we wish them every success in their new premises,” McSwiggan wrote.

When asked whether the University of Carolina had offered the organizers alternative rooms on other property it owns, he did not respond.

The used book sale, which has been held on the second weekend in October since its introduction in 1954 began as a fundraiser for Korean refugees during the Korean War, organized by the Hyde Park Co-op grocery store. When the Co-op went out of business in 2007, sales were transferred to the HPKCC.

With prices starting at $1, thousands of books in dozens of genres are offered, with proceeds typically going to HPKCC, local park beautification and event programs, and the nonprofit Englewood Growing homewhich offers agricultural training to people with employment barriers.

The Hyde Park Garden Fair’s Fall Bulb and Chrysanthemum Sale is held just as the neighborhood’s fall colors begin to bloom. This September marks the 64th year. Proceeds from the day-long sale – bulbs for a colorful spring bloom and chrysanthemums for fall color – also go to HPKCC for beautification programs at local parks and gardens, as well as other neighborhood projects.

The fall garden flea market will serve as a kind of trial run for the much larger book flea market at Kimbark Plaza, Rumsey said. Final details still need to be worked out, but he added, “We believe everything will go smoothly.”

“I think we’ll be able to adapt after we’ve experimented a bit and learned how to set everything up,” he said. So far, the plan is to organize the sale on the concrete surfaces of the plaza rather than in the parking lot.

The annual Hyde Park Garden Fair spring sale, which attracts around 1,000 shoppers over two days in May, will also be moved to the Plaza next year.

The selection of Kimbark Plaza also fits a major goal of Special Service Area No. 61, a tax district that funds services and programs in the commercial heart of the neighborhood: to bring more pedestrian traffic to the western end of 53rd Street.

“We’ve been talking for two years about what we could do to bring more activity to Kimbark Plaza,” said Rumsey, who is also chairman of SSA 61.

Betsy Budney, co-chair of the used book sale, hopes that moving the fundraiser will encourage other groups to bring their events to the west end of 53rd Street.

“I hope that when other organizations see what can be done (in Kimbark), they will want to do something there,” Budney said. “It’s disappointing, but exciting at the same time.”

In the meantime, sale organizers are busy sourcing plants and sorting through thousands of donated books. Those who wish to donate books can drop them off in the lobby of the Hyde Park Bank Building, 1525 E. 53rd St., 24 hours a day through the end of September.

The fall bulb and chrysanthemum sale will be held on September 21 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Kimbark Plaza, 53rd Street and Kimbark Avenue. The used book sale will be Saturday, October 12 through Monday, October 14.