Levin to buy back 5 stores from Michigan firm, rebuild furniture chain

Robert Levin is getting closer to rebuilding his family’s namesake furniture chain, which nearly fell to ruin after a century in business following a sale and the tumult of a messy bankruptcy proceeding.

“I feel this is like a Christmas gift for all of us, customers and employees,” Levin said Tuesday after telling employees he plans to reacquire three more local Levin Furniture sites — including the flagship location in Mt. Pleasant that his grandfather opened in 1920. “This is happening at the end of a weird year.”

The chairman of the new Levin Furniture chain also announced the company is buying two former Wolf Furniture stores.

Levin is finalizing a deal with Loves Furniture of Warren, Mich., to buy the assets of the stores and reach an agreement with a Phoenix company that owns the real estate for the Mt. Pleasant store plus former Levin stores in Robinson and Peters Township.

Levin Furniture also is acquiring the assets of the former Wolf stores in Altoona and State College, neither of which were ever opened by Loves.

“This deal transpired really quickly,” Levin said.

Loves Furniture & Mattresses issued a statement late Monday, saying it was leasing its stores in Pennsylvania to a retailer — though it did not reveal it was Levin. The company said it was “rightsizing its footprint” by getting out of the Pennsylvania market. Loves’ two stores on opposite sides of the 600 block of Main Street in Mt. Pleasant were closed on Tuesday, and a notice from Loves was taped to the inside of one front entrance.

“We set out with a bold vision during a pandemic — the belief that there is a better way to buy furniture and love where you live,” Jeff Love, CEO of Texas-based US Assets, who founded his own namesake furniture company in May, said in a statement. “… Our plans have been met with the challenges of 2020, a year like no other.”

Levin Furniture is targeting a February opening for the stores. Beforehand, it must sell floor samples and restock the locations with the furnishings that Levin sells at its other stores. It may have to “refreshen” the stores to make them compatible with other Levin stores.

“There is a fair amount of work to be done,” Levin said.

Levin acknowledged the challenge in refurnishing the stores with the same inventory because of the difficulties in the supply chain. Those supply chain problems hampered Loves Furniture as its supply chain was stretched from Michigan to Western Pennsylvania, he noted.

Levin expects to have about 20 to 30 employees in each store. With the additional stores, some employees may be able to transfer to locations closer to where they live, Levin noted.

Levin sold the family-owned company in 2017 to Michigan-based Art Van Furniture, which had been bought by a Boston-based investment firm. But Art Van ran into financial problems, and Levin sought to repurchase the family’s stores earlier this year. Art Van filed for bankruptcy in March, nixing that deal.

Loves Furniture bought some of the Levin and Wolf furniture stores in May in bankruptcy court, while Levin partnered with the Schultz family of Erie — the licensee for three Ashley Furniture stores in Western Pennsylvania — to buy 17 of the 33 stores Levin sold to Art Van. It paid $25.7 million for the inventory of 32 Levin’s stores. John and Matt Schultz are co-CEOs at the new Levin Furniture, which now has 21 furniture and mattress stores, 10 of which are in Ohio.

Love’s Furniture in September opened a store in North Fayette at The Pointe in Robinson shopping complex and the former Levin’s store in Peters Township.

Customers who made a deposit at Loves will be contacted. Customers who have deposits in those stores and would like a refund will be reimbursed.

Customers can reach the Loves service team at 888-477-3141.