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Citing a lingering decrease in customer traffic following the pandemic, the owners of Chatham Home furniture and gifts store plan to exit downtown Indianapolis for a storefront in Carmel’s Arts & Design District.
Chatham Home, which opened in the Chatham Arch neighborhood less than a block north of Massachusetts Avenue in 2011, will take over a building where Carmel Music Center has sold guitars, trumpets and other instruments since 1987.
“Since the pandemic, our traffic had just never quite rebounded,” said Hope Harsin, Chatham Home’s chief operating officer. “It improved, but it didn’t really get back up to the level it needs to be.”
Harsin described the decision to leave 517 E. Walnut St. as bittersweet.
“We have developed a lot of relationships in the downtown area,” Harsin said. “We love seeing a lot of regulars and learning what’s new in their lives. … I hope that they come visit us in Carmel.”
Harsin oversees Chatham Home with her mother, Faith Felder, who owns the business.
Felder and her husband, Christian Felder, own the East Walnut Street building and they purchased the Carmel building at 22 W. Main St. in November. Carmel Music Center is scheduled to close in late February.
Harsin said her parents are weighing their options regarding the future of the East Walnut Street building. If the 9,000-square-foot building isn’t sold, she said, it likely will be leased to a new tenant. The building previously was home to the Ray & Schumacher Tool & Engineering Corp. factory.
Presently, Chatham Home uses about 5,000 square feet for showroom purposes. Looking ahead to the Carmel spot, Harsin said Chatham Home will have a 2,000-square-foot showroom in the 3,000-square-foot building.
The store will carry fewer examples of large furniture, Harsin said, and will discontinue custom upholstery.
“My mom and I have found that the things that get us most excited when we’re on our buying trips are the smaller home goods and gift items,” Harsin said. “We’re excited to expand those categories, and we want to become the go-to destination for gifts for every occasion. We’re going to get into custom gift baskets, as well.”
A sale to reduce inventory at the downtown location is scheduled to begin Feb. 1, she said. Chatham Home is aiming for a July opening in Carmel.
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“We have developed a lot of relationships in the downtown area,” Harsin said. “We love seeing a lot of regulars and learning what’s new in their lives. … I hope that they come visit us in Carmel.”
yeah, sorry, no.
To expand on this: I go to Mass Ave with the intention of window shopping stores like Chatham Home. Carmel does not have anywhere near the same kind of window shopping draw, and Chatham Home by itself does not make the trip worth it.