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After 38 years in operation, one of Carmel’s oldest retail businesses will close next month.
Carmel Music Center, which has operated at 22 W. Main St. since 1987, will close in late February, store owner David Rennard announced Wednesday in a social media post.
“I am pleased to say that I am going out on my terms and my schedule, not because I have to, but because it is time for me to enjoy some things I have sacrificed over the decades,” Rennard wrote on the store’s Facebook page. “I will start by cleaning my garage.”
Carmel Music Center sells and repairs musical equipment and offers music classes taught by nearly a dozen instructors. The business succeeded Phelan Music Studio, where Rennard took guitar lessons in the 1970s and worked beginning in 1984. Rennard acquired the business and changed the name in 1987 after spending the previous 10 years as a music educator.
“With passion and enthusiastic endurance, Carmel Music Center thrived for almost 40 years, often though tough business environments, as well as the challenges of the COVID pandemic,” he wrote.
Rennard added that he attempted to find someone who would continue to operate a music store at the storefront, where one has been in business since the 1960s, but that “due to economic obstacles, the stars could not align and I finally decided to sell the business to a family-owned business that I feel will be a good fit for the Arts and Design District.”
According to Hamilton County property records, the sale of the 105-year-old building was completed on Nov. 27 to Christian and Faith Felder. The Felders operate Chatham Home, a home goods store at 517 E. Walnut St. in Indianapolis.
A purchase price for the 3,123-square-foot store building was not available.
Rennard said he has already started liquidating inventory. The store carries guitars, keyboards, drum kits, orchestra instruments of all types, sheet music, and amplifiers and other electronic equipment.
Carmel Music Center will the second long-time music business in Carmel to close since late last year.
Meridian Music Co., 14300 Clay Terrace Blvd., Suite 140, closed in December after 36 years of operation. Meridian Music, led by President Craig Gigax, moved to Clay Terrace from 12725 Old Meridian St. in 2015.
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