Largest venture will be Liddiard’s discount furniture store

The movement to revitalize Tooele’s downtown appears to be gaining fresh momentum with three new businesses coming into the southern end of the area.

The businesses are The Budget and Clearance Center, a division of Liddiard’s Home Furnishings that is moving into the old Al & Lid Furniture and Appliance building near 100 South; Allen’s Floor Coverings, which has been in Tooele for several years and will move into 24 N. Main Street; and Grandma’s Closet, which is right next door to Allen’s at 18 N. Main Street.

Grandma’s Closet opened its doors this month, while The Budget and Clearance Center will open this Thursday, and Allen’s expects to open by the end of the month.

The largest of the three ventures is the new discount furniture store, which will reuse the old building that was vacated when Al & Lid moved out two years ago. That longtime local business become Liddiard’s Home Furnishings, which is situated in a new 84,000-square-foot building in the north part of town.

J.R. Loertscher, manager of Liddiard’s Home Furnishings, said The Budget and Clearance Center’s inventory will be approximately three-fourths brand new items such as furniture, electronics, appliances and home theater equipment that could not fit in Liddiard’s main location on SR-36 due to lack of space. All of this inventory will be sold at lower prices than at Liddiard’s main store, according to Loertscher.

The Budget and Clearance Center will also feature overstocked, scratched or dented items at a discount. Loertscher hopes the new store will draw more shoppers downtown in general.

“We want to help revitalize downtown Tooele, and we feel the city needs that kind of store in the area, where people can get good furniture at a bargain price,” Loertscher said.

Pete Allen, owner of Allen’s Floor Coverings, said he is excited to move his store back into the downtown area. His 10-year-old business has been located in the Utah Industrial Depot for the past five years, where it moved from downtown.

“Downtown is a better location for us because it’s easier for people to find, and there is also a lot of traffic on Main Street nowadays, as opposed to seven years ago,” Allen said. “People from out of town couldn’t find us in the industrial depot, and some local people didn’t know where we were. We missed being downtown and are so glad to get back there.”

Allen said his new 3,000-square-foot Main Street location is being remodeled with new carpeting, fresh paint and wood paneling — a project that began at the end of June.

Allen said the store will be able to carry 20 to 30 percent more inventory than his existing location.

“Our showroom at the industrial depot was close to 1,000 square feet, so the new space will be much more convenient for us to have a bigger showroom to put everything into,” Allen said. “There is also plenty of parking in the back for customers.”

Allen expects his store’s business to increase by 20 percent as a result of the move, and hopes to hire more employees as a result. He said he is eager to be a part of the new wave of businesses moving into downtown.

“I’m excited about these businesses coming in, and it will bring much more exposure to the downtown area, both for the public and other businesses,” Allen said. “I think people have always wanted to go downtown, but because there were not many things to do or places to go to, they felt like they had to move northward. I see a combination of independent and chain businesses moving into downtown in the future.”

Grandma’s Closet, which had its grand opening last Saturday, moved into a space on Main Street that was once used by Crystal Nails. The store sells handcrafted items from local Tooele County artists — paintings, framed photography, aprons, purses, baby blankets, quilts, glasswork, and handmade jewelry — and features a full-service salon with hair styling and pedicures.

Owner Becky Bracken said she has always had an affinity for downtown Tooele, and that she wanted to make sure she could open her new business there.

“We could have rented a brand new building in a strip mall, but that just seems so boring when you could be in the old, historic downtown,” she said. “I love downtown and all of its atmosphere, and I remember growing up in a small town and looking through the windows of businesses on Main Street. It’s too bad that atmosphere has gone away from Tooele’s Main Street, but we’re hoping to bring it back.”

Bracken said she had received no RDA money for her business, but that she has seen a heavy influx of folks coming in who are curious as to what her store is all about.

“We have been receiving much foot traffic, and we get people coming in a little more all the time,” she said.

Allen said he expects downtown to grow with even more businesses in the future, thanks to the addition of several large, nationwide chains scheduled to move in.

“Gold’s Gym, Sears and Big 5 Sporting Goods will all help revitalize that whole downtown area and bring in more businesses,” he said. “We’ve talked to people, both older and younger, who will be glad to see downtown come alive again, and I think Walgreen’s going in really helped the bigger chains want to come here. People are tired of seeing the business center of Tooele move northward.”

Doug Radunich: dougrad@tooeletranscript.com