page_title: Art Van Furniture
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Art Van Furniture / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Art Van Furniture store, 425 E. Eisenhower Pkwy., Ann Arbor, MI 48108
context_page_description: Art Van Furniture Inc. was an American furniture retail store chain. Founded in 1959, the company is headquartered in Warren, Michigan in Metro Detroit. On March 5, 2020, the company announced it closed all its stores.
context_section_description: Archie "Art" Van Elslander founded Art Van in 1959, opening his first store in East Detroit. Van Elslander's furniture first business was a 4,000 square-foot space on Gratiot Avenue and 10 Mile Road. He expanded to three stores in that same year, and a fourth store opened in 1960. His first employee was not hired until this time. Art Vans Furniture (later changed to Art Van Furniture) opened with mostly modern and Danish-style furniture.
  By 1963, Van Elslander owned seven stores and had taken on some partners, including his brother, Bob Van Elslander, Don Fox and Bob McEachin. The following year, three of those stores were sold off, however Van Elslander expanded the chain in the 1970s and in 1973 the company purchased its headquarters in Warren, Michigan. Around that time, the company had fifteen stores in its chain. In the late 1970s opened several warehouses and a corporate training department. In 1977 the company opened stores outside of Detroit, in Flint, Michigan and Lansing, Michigan.
  In 1980, the company issued its first credit card and in 1985 the company introduced clearance centers attached to many of the stores offering overstocked merchandise. In 2009, the company's half-centennial, Art Van Furniture was named furniture retailer of the year by  Furniture Today magazine. In 2013, the company made a $50 million investment in the state of Illinois to open a sequence of new establishments in the state. In 2015 Patti Smith wrote about Art Van stores as a favorite hang-out of hers during the 1970s. The current CEO of the company is Gary Fazio. Art Van also operates Scott Shuptrine Interiors retail locations.  In March 2017 the company was purchased by Thomas H. Lee Partners (THL), a private equity firm based in Boston.
  On March 5, 2020, the company announced that it would be closing all of its company-owned stores as it plans to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy. The stores were forced to close early due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
caption: Art Van Furniture store, Ann Arbor, MI, one of the 30 Michigan stores
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