Fabric suppliers continue to exit IHFC spaces
By Susan M. Andrews -- Furniture Today, April 18, 2004
HIGH POINT — HIGH POINT — Fabric suppliers with showrooms on the 13th and 14th floors of the International Home Furnishings Center were told this winter by building officials their leases wouldn't be renewed because the floors were being retooled for furniture exhibitors.
The number of fabric companies exhibiting on those floors has been dwindling for several years, and most were happy to look for space elsewhere.
Three suppliers formerly showing in the IHFC — Blumenthal, Microfibres and Milliken — already had moved out for Showtime in January. Culp, the largest fabric source with an IHFC space, has announced it is relocating as well, but said the move was unrelated to the building's decision to remove the fabric exhibitors.
Bruce Miller, CEO of the IHFC, said Keller Furniture already has a new showroom on the 13th floor. "I believe the last of the leases on the 14th floor expire in April, and that will ultimately be a furniture floor also," he said.
The change proved a boon to Gum Tree Fabrics, which for the past two Showtime fabric markets had a temporary space in Suites at Market Square as well as its permanent space on the IHFC's 13th floor.
"Activity had not been what we would have liked in the IHFC space for a while," said Lenny Samet, Southeast regional sales manager. "Traffic was much better in the temporary space." Gum Tree negotiated an early end to its IHFC lease, he said.
"We were out of the IHFC a week after Showtime in January. This worked out well for us and we are pleased with where we are now," Samet said. "We are leasing space from Three Associates at 310 Fraley Road and there is a showroom there that we can use between markets."
Samet said the company will triple its space, from 200 square feet to 600 square feet, in the Suites at Market Square for Summer Showtime.
At Milliken, Stafford Brooke, director of sales and marketing, said, "The number of vendors on those IHFC floors had been going down for years, so when we heard about the building's plan, we went ahead and moved to the Resource Center at 312 South Hamilton."
Two affected mills, Carpostan and Chambers Fabrics, haven't found alternative space yet. Both will have to leave the IHFC after the April furniture market.
-
Linen source Libeco Lagae in new space for Showtime
May 15, 2012 -
2 High Point buildings suing former tenants
May 15, 2012 -
HP exhibitors invest in space
Apr 18, 2012
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
