Textile mills in Fort Lawn get new life in furniture
Charlotte Business Journal - by Ken Elkins Staff writer
As Stanley Atkins planned a home-furnishings discount center in two former Fort Lawn textile mills, there was little discussion about the name.
“I walked into them and it was ‘Wow!’ ” says Atkins, who now displays $6 million in furnishings and rugs in the buildings that total 500,000 square feet.
Atkins opened WOW! Furniture and WOW! Home Décor last month, offering medium to high-end furniture for shoppers willing to drive to rural Chester County.
Atkins’ plans are to draw customers from as far away as Myrtle Beach, S.C., with mailers and billboards. “They will come this far,” he says of the three-hour drive from the coast.
Charlotte and Columbia, S.C., will also be key markets. WOW! is 50 miles south of Charlotte on S.C. Highway 9.
Atkins operates a similar store, called Real Deals, an hour outside of Atlanta in Jefferson, Ga., that’s busy with shoppers. He owns four other discount furniture centers in the Atlanta area, which were opened between 1984 and 2005.
“I find old mills and turn them into retail shopping places,” Atkins says.
He hasn’t decided how he’ll use about 60 acres that came with his purchases of the Elliott and Frances plants from Springs Global US.
For Karlisa Parker, Chester County economic development director, the WOW! project removes two buildings from her growing inventory of shuttered mill facilities.
Plus, it adds 45 jobs to the Chester County economy, where the jobless rate climbed to 12.5% in October, fifth-worst in South Carolina. WOW! also represents about an $8 million investment.
“When you walk in knowing what the textile facility looks like, you just go ‘wow,’ ” Parker says.
The buildings, with 18-foot ceilings, weren’t up to modern manufacturing standards that require at least 25-foot ceilings.
“Rather than having large facilities sitting empty, that was a good reuse,” Parker says.
Both mills closed in 2005 after Fort Mill-based Springs Industries Inc. merged with Coteminas, the Brazilian textile giant. Last year, Springs Global US, the name the company adopted for its domestic operations, halted all S.C. production of textiles.
Atkins imports much of the furniture for sale in the WOW! stores and his Atlanta-area operations.
He plans at least one other WOW! store in the Charlotte area but won’t talk specifics.
“It jinxes me.”
kelkins@bizjournals.com
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