Antique Store Owner Dusts Off Old Building for Antique Mall
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Jordan Fouts-
Buoyed by the success of their downtown Warsaw antique store, Brent and Amber Cox wanted to go bigger. Indiana Antique Company owner Brent Cox had a personal goal for several years of also opening an antique mall, but didn’t have the perfect location until he found a recently renovated 10,000-square-foot building southeast of town. The former Indiana Restaurant Equipment Corp. building, 2653 E. U.S. 30, is a spacious and well-situated spot for the Indiana Antique Mall, he said. “It sits on a prime location for our type of establishment. An average of 35,000 cars will drive by our store every day,” Brent said. “We are investing a lot of time and money into this building ... Our mall will be a state-of-the-art, full-service mall.” Renovations include installing partitioned walls between most of the 100 to 150 planned booths and showcase vendors, and building a relaxation room for dealers and customers to sit and socialize. The venue also will have free Wi-Fi, and transactions will all be processed through an accounting program specifically made for antique malls. “We are screening potential dealers to ensure 85 percent of our mall will contain antique or vintage items,” Brent said, also noting that they are targeting vendors in a 250-mile radius. “Since we acquired our building last week, we already have 25 percent of our dealers signed up.” They plan to offer a variety of special events throughout the year, such as “Antiques Roadshow”-style appraisal fairs and large, outdoor, “no-rules yard sales” in warm months. “We are going to have large buying events where we pull in a few serious collectors in specific niche areas such as coins, post cards, fine jewelry, etc., in hopes of getting our customer top dollar for their goods,” Brent added. He said they will continue to run the downtown store, which will share seven to 10 employees with the antique mall, and that his parents, David and Suzanne Cox, have joined as partners in the antique mall. “My wife Amber and I have had great success with Indiana Antique Company downtown. We have no intention of ever leaving our location there,” Brent said. “My next goal is to open a third mall within two to three years and have five open in 10 to 15 years, all in northern Indiana.” They plan a soft opening for Indiana Antique Mall Feb. 2 with a grand opening shortly after that. For more information, call Indiana Antique Company at 574-306-2807.
