Hillside Furniture to close one year after Art Van sale
Bloomfield Township-based Hillside Furniture is going out of business, but store will be ‘rebranded’ as an Art Van
Hillside Furniture, an Oakland County mainstay for contemporary furniture for more than four decades, is going out of business just one year after being sold to Warren-based Art Van Furniture.
On Friday, Art Van ran ads announcing that Hillside was going out of business, “selling out to the bare walls.” In a news release, the retailer said it plans to “re-brand” the store in the same location on Telegraph in Bloomfield Township as an Art Van store. All Hillside employees will become Art Van employees and the retailer said it will likely add more associates as demand grows at that location.
“As our company expands, it is essential that we focus on the Art Van brand as the brand of the future,” said Art Van Furniture CEO Kim Yost in a news release. “As a company that operates more than 100 locations throughout the Midwest, this single-minded commitment will allow us to achieve many synergies together under the Art Van brand, which, like Hillside, has created a reputation built on trust, respect, and quality furniture and home design.”
Hillside was founded more than 40 years ago by Bruce Selik and was known for its large selection of contemporary home goods. When Selik sold the store to Art Van in March 2016 because he planned to retire, Art Van’s founder, Art Van Elslander, said the retailer was “honored to be entrusted with the brand Bruce has worked so hard to build.”
Jeff Selik, Bruce’s son, who became Hillside’s general manager after the sale, declined to comment about Hillside’s closure. He will assume a leadership position in the company.
The store’s closure comes nearly three months after Art Van was sold to Thomas H. Lee Partners, a private equity firm based in Boston.
Art Van plans to remodel the former Hillside store by mid-August, but it will no longer carry exclusive contemporary furniture. It will carry the same furniture as other Art Van stores. “There will be some modern just like Novi” and other Art Van stores, said spokeswoman Diane Charles.
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