RoomPlace has acquired the 170,000-square-foot former Levitz building at 8301 E. Washington St. The Lombard, Ill., furniture seller plans to use the building as a warehouse and showroom. The building also will become the headquarters of RoomPlace's rent-to-own division, EasyHome.
RoomPlace plans to hire 70 people within a year and more than 120 within two years, CEO Paul Adams said. The company plans to invest more than $7 million to renovate the building.
RoomPlace operates 25 stores, including locations in Indianapolis, Carmel, Greenwood, Merrillville and Plainfield. It offers a variety of furniture, from traditional to modern.
Before settling on the former Levitz building, RoomPlace had planned to open another store in Indianapolis. But it had been eyeing locations in Ohio and Illinois for its distribution center, Adams said.
Adams became sold on Indianapolis after talking to Sidney Eskenazi. Eskenazi's company, Sandor Development, constructed the Levitz building in the early 1970s. Sandor in December donated it to the Eskenazi Health Foundation, which sold the building to RoomPlace for $2 million. In addition to acquiring the Levitz building, RoomPlace is planning to donate at least $150,000 to Eskenazi Health Foundation.
"Sid convinced me that not only should we have another store here, but we absolutely needed to have a warehouse in the Indianapolis market," Adams said.
The building sale closed May 9. RoomPlace sped up its acquisition in the wake of a devastating April 21 fire at its Woodridge, Ill., warehouse that destroyed $10 million in inventory and caused $70 million in damage.
RoomPlace's new warehouse will serve areas throughout the Midwest, including Cincinnati, Adams said.
"We built the business large enough that we really needed to find a distribution center so that we could add more value within the Indianapolis area," Adams said. "This building fits that."
Indianapolis plans to provide incentives to RoomPlace. The Metropolitan Development Commission will consider an incentive package in June, Mayor Joe Hogsett said.
"I'm not at liberty to go into details because the incentives are still being negotiated," Hogsett said. "But suffice it to say, the city will participate."
Hogsett touted the RoomPlace deal as a chance to bring life to a long-ignored stretch of historic U.S. 40.
"This project over the next year or so, and thereafter, will bring jobs, will bring money, will bring beautification to a side of town that has long been underserved," Hogsett said.
RoomPlace, a 104-year-old company, is moving into a building once occupied by another historic furniture retailer. Levitz, once the top-selling furniture seller in the U.S., occupied the building from the 1970s until 1999, when it closed the Eastside location as part of a Chapter 11 restructuring plan. Levitz also closed a store at 6250 W. 38th St. at the same time. Levitz liquidated its assets in 2008.
Sandor had little luck finding a replacement for Levitz aside from temporary tenants, such as a company that stored boats there in recent winters, Eskenazi said.
"I am really excited about the building being put to a good use by a company that's going to make major improvements to it and employ a lot of people," Eskenazi said. "It's very important to me."
Call IndyStar reporter James Briggs at (317) 444-6307. Follow him on
Resource:http://www.indystar.com/story/money/2016/05/16/furniture-retailer-roomplace-buys-levitz-building-plans-hire-100-workers/84408774/
