Art Van Furniture Closing All Locations, Including 7 Ohio Stores

TOLEDO, OH — 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 brand has seven locations throughout Ohio.

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 seven Art Van-owned stores in Ohio. The company also operates under the brands Art Van PureSleep and Scott Shuptrine Interiors. A list of impacted stores is at the bottom of this article.

"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 they will be sold to Levin "pending court approval."

All Ohio Art Van store locations:

• PureSleep outlet —1551 Gemini Place, Columbus
• PureSleep — 10300 US-224, Findlay
• PureSleep, Scott Shuptrine Interiors — 22225 OH-51, Genoa
• PureSleep — 6760 Airport Highway, Holland
• PureSleep — 10411 Fremont Pike, Perrysburg
• PureSleep — 4600 Tallmadge Road, Toledo
• PureSleep, Scott Shuptrine Interiors — 1301 E. Mall Drive, Toledo