UKRAINIAN VILLAGE — After four generations and 96 years in business, Columbia Furniture in Ukrainian Village is calling it quits after the sale of its Chicago Avenue building. A going-out-of-business sale is set to begin Thursday.
"Apparently our real estate is better than the furniture business," said co-owner Wally Papciak, who runs Columbia Furniture with his brother, Larry Papciak, and four employees.
In late April, the Papciak family sold their three-story, 20,000-square-foot building, which includes 13 upstairs apartments, for $2.85 million, according to Papciak and the buyers, brothers Ken and Michael Motew, who own Mo2.
Mo2, a real estate firm based in West Town, specializes in rehabbing older apartment buildings and mixed-use commercial and residential properties in Ukrainian Village, Wicker Park, Bucktown, West Loop and River West.
"We are a family-run company that rehabs almost every building we buy. Then we rent them and manage them," said Ken Motew, who assured that there are no plans to demolish the building.
If everything goes as planned, Ken Motew said he will start renovations on the building in late August or early September. He is working with commercial real estate brokers SVN to find a tenant to replace Columbia Furniture in the 9,000-square-foot storefront on the first floor.
"You could do a large daycare or a nursing school or retail. There are 19 parking spaces in a lot next to it. We would love a restaurant there but have not heard from one yet. We just started marketing it," Papciak said.
In business since 1920, Columbia Furniture moved to 2119-2125 W. Chicago Ave. in 1926 from 1135 W. Chicago Ave., where Walter Papciak, originally a stair maker, started his furniture shop.
Wally Papciak, Walter's grandson, said that the decision to sell the building as well as close the family business was related to the economics of furniture buying, which have dramatically changed.
"It was a tipping point. Customers are buying differently and devoting less to home and more to entertainment and restaurants. And millennials are living with their parents longer and acquiring furniture on Craiglist or online without trying it out first," Wally Papciak said.
When asked what he will miss most about running the furniture shop, Wally Papciak said "the customers."
"We've had good relationships with all of our customers for many years. They have supported our family and our workers' families," he said.
Area rugs are currently 50 percent off and the appliance portion of the business has already been sold, Papciak said, adding that more items such as living room sets, kitchen tables and mattresses will be discounted starting Thursday.
Wally Papciak, co-owner of Columbia Furniture. [DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser]
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
