News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Bob Young, owner of Young’s Appliance and overseer of the Alpena Art Van Furniture store, puts a decorative touch to one of the couches for sale at Art Van in Alpena. Art Van is closing its stores in Michigan, but the inventory and business of the franchise will be absorbed by Young’s and continue to be sold.

ALPENA –Art Van Furniture will close in Alpena and liquidation sales are expected to begin soon as the Warren-based company has filed for bankruptcy, it was announced Thursday.

Sale of furniture will continue at the location on U.S.-23 South, however, as the furniture business will be absorbed by the adjoining Young’s Appliance moving forward. Young’s Appliance owner Bob Young is contracted to oversee the Alpena Art Van store, which is attached to his appliance store.

Young said it has been a hectic week as details about the fate of the store in Alpena were being considered. He said the name Art Van may be removed from the outside of his building, but the quality of service and products will continue to be as good, or better, than before.

Overall, Young said, this is a good thing for Young’s Appliance.

“We’re open for business, and we have inventory, so it isn’t as bad as you would think,” Young said. “The good news is that Young’s Appliance is still here, and the furniture division will transfer into a division of Young’s Appliance.”

Young’s had a limited inventory of furniture before Art Van came along, but, after the transfer of operations, it will be much larger, with high quality and popular product lines from companies customers trust, Young said.

“We have gone from being a small player before Art Van and now will be a much larger independent seller after this,” he said. “We will liquidate inventory that was procured by Art Van, but will also be bringing in stock from good companies that we have worked with forever.”

In a press release, Art Van said all of its stores in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri will close and liquidation sales could begin at most of them as soon as today.

All of the stores will be closed within 60 days.

Art Van made an effort to avoid filing for bankruptcy, but those efforts failed.

“Despite our best efforts to remain open, the company’s brands and operating performance have been hit hard by a challenging retail environment,” Art Van spokeswoman Diane Charles in a press release. “We recognize the extraordinary retail, community and philanthropic legacies that Art Van Furniture has built for decades in the community.”

Archie “Art” Van Elslander opened his first store in 1959 in suburban Detroit. The company was sold in 2017 to a private equity firm, and Elslander died the following year at age 87.

Warren Mayor Jim Fouts said Art Van is the city’s top taxpayer at more than $2.2 million per year. He also called the closings “devastating” and said the company’s Warren location has 262 employees.

The city will look into marketing the Warren “site for a future company that would invest and save the jobs of those who have been terminated,” Fouts said.

Art Van also has been a regular sponsor of the annual Thanksgiving Day parade in Detroit. In 1990, Van Elslander wrote a $200,000 check for the parade as the event struggled with failing finances.

“It’s probably one of the most gratifying things I’ve ever done,” Van Elslander said in 2015. “Because when you see the lives that you’ve been able to affect, it’s pretty cool.”

In 2015, Art Van customers in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois who bought furniture, TVs and mattresses on certain days that January got their merchandise free of charge due to a company promotion.

Art Van had bet customers that if it snowed more than 3 inches in each of the Toledo, Fort Wayne and Chicago areas on Super Bowl Sunday that it would refund the purchase price on the items. A winter storm dumped more than a foot of snow in some places.

Nearly 3,000 shoppers at nine stores in the three states were able to get their furniture for free. At the time, Art Van said the offer applied to $2.5 million in sales.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 at sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ss_alpenanews.com.