Art Van Furniture Closing All Stores, Including 24 In Illinois

CHICAGO — Liquidation sales begin Friday at more than 300 stores owned by Art Van Furniture. The announcement comes three years after the Midwest's largest furniture and mattress retailer was sold by its founder to a private equity firm.

The 61-year-old retailer will wind down sales at all company-owned locations in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio, the company announced Thursday in a release.

There are 24 Art Van Furniture store locations in Illinois and two more in Northwest Indiana, according to the company's website. The business also operates under the brands Art Van PureSleep and Scott Shuptrine Interiors.

"Despite our best efforts to remain open, the Company's brands and operating performance have been hit hard by a challenging retail environment," company spokesperson Diane Charles said in a release. "We recognize the extraordinary retail, community and philanthropic legacies that Art Van Furniture has built for decades in the community."

The company was founded in East Detroit in 1959 by Art Van Elslander, who died in 2018, a year after selling the business he built into one of the nation's top 10 furniture sellers to a private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners LP.

After the sale, Art Van added about 200 additional stores and more than doubled the company's workforce, spending an estimated $260 million to buy Pennsylvania's Levin Furniture and Wolf Furniture stores, according to Crain's Detroit Business, which first reported the liquidation plans.

"The Van Elslander family's hearts go out to the employees of Art Van Furniture and to others who are affected by TH Lee's announcement," Art Van Furniture Chairman Gary Van Elslander told Crain's in a statement. "This is a great loss to our communities of one of the great retail furniture brands."

A representative of the Van Elslander family's company told Crain's they had been open to conversations about keeping the stores from shuttering but they were "not fruitful."

Several sources said a bankruptcy filing is forthcoming, Furniture Today reported.

According to a release from Levin Furniture, founder Robert Levin is "coming out of retirement to save the company from going out of business." It said Levin reached an agreement to acquire 44 Levin and Wolf furniture and mattress stores in Ohio and Pennsylvania following a court restructuring of Art Van.

Art Van confirmed the locations will be sold to Levin "pending court approval."

All Illinois Art Van store locations:

• Algonquin — 1500 S. Randall Road
• Batavia — 165 N. Randall Road
• Bedford Park — 7200 S. Cicero Ave.
• Bloomingdale — 398 Army Trail Road #102
• Burbank — 7712 S. Cicero Ave.
• Chicago, Logan Square — 2606 N. Elston Ave.
• Chicago, Lakeview — 2911 N. Ashland Ave.
• Deerfield — 120 S. Waukegan Road
• Downers Grove — 1021 Butterfield Road
• Glendale Heights — 125 Army Trail Road
• Gurnee — 6911 W. Grand Ave.
• Harwood Heights — 7304 W. Lawrence Ave.
• Joliet — 2901 C Plainfield Road
• Kildeer — 20393 N. Rand Road
• Naperville — 404 IL-59
• O'Fallon — 1776 W. Hwy 50
• Orland Park — 15080 South La Grange Road
• Plainfield — 13511 IL-59 #111
• Rockford — 7047 Newburg Road
• Schaumburg — 1293 E. Higgins Road
• Willowbrook — 6938 Kingery Highway
• Woodridge — 900 E Boughton Road