News
TEXTILE MILL TRANSFORMED
January 26, 2012
| While driving along South Main Street in downtown Mooresville, its quaint antique stores and tiny nook retailers will catch the eye. Then,wham! There stands a 1.1M SF, sprawling former Burlington Mills textile plant, which will be the largest furniture store ?on the planet? when renovations are done, according to its new owner. | ||
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| After sitting empty for more than eight years, much of the cavernous building has been redeveloped and occupied for about five months by Merinos Home Furnishings. That's developer, owner and sole tenant Michael Bay (not the Transformers director; he's used to being kidded about his name and it's not funny anymore) with the Mooresville Chamber's Stan Thompson above. | ||
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| Michael has fixed up a 300k SF showroom with another 400k SF planned to open in the next two months. But the balance of the space (in what can only be described as an enormous complex of brick and steel) is still in need of renovation. Just one of Michael?s ideas for the space: a pizza restaurant in what used to be Burlington Mills? electrical plant. (He's bringing in a pal from Naples to give it a kick start.) Meanwhile, walk in and find couches, love seats, end tables, lamps, and throw rugs—he's got it all. Michael (originally from Turkey, but grew up in Europe) spotted the property two years ago on Google Earth while he was in Italy and bought it for $500k cash without a walkthrough. Michael also owns other Merinos furniture stores in Jefferson, Ga., and Fort Lawn, SC. |
