Lombard, Illinois-based furniture retailer RoomPlace has acquired the massive and long-vacant Levitz Furniture building on East Washington Street and plans to renovate it into a showroom and warehouse, city officials announced Monday morning.
The 11-acre site, 8301 E. Washington St., will also become the new headquarters location of RoomPlace’s rent-to-own division, EasyHome.
City officials said the 160,000-square-foot facility will open in late fall, leading to more than 100 new jobs in Indianapolis.
Levitz was the largest independent furniture retailer in the country in the mid-1990s but grew too fast to keep up with its debt load and liquidated its assets in 2008. Its East Washington Street store closed in 1999 after more than 20 years in operation.
Sandor Development, which developed and owned the site, brokered the deal with RoomPlace, city officials said.
RoomPlace,has 23 stores overall, including five in the Indianapolis area. The retailer got its start in 1912 and was known as Harlem Furniture for decades.
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said the city would provide RoomPlace with an incentive deal that was still being negotiated. He said the project will play a key role in helping revitalize the east side.
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