Ashley Furniture closes Etna Township distribution center after less than 3 years
Less than three years after it was announced that Ashley Furniture Industries would bring a distribution hub to Etna Township, the furniture manufacturer has closed the facility.
Ashley ceased operations at the Etna facility late last year, Grow Licking County Executive Alexis Fitzsimmons confirmed.
Etna Township Trustee Rozland McKee said an Ashley representative told her that the closure was due to financial reasons, indicating that during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic consumers were spending money on furniture and other home improvement projects but now people are choosing to take vacations, go out for nice dinners and spend their money on other experiences. As a result, Ashley's sales were impacted.
An attorney representing Ashley Furniture did not return repeated requests seeking comment.
McKee said the company doesn't have any distribution centers in Ohio anymore and consolidated its warehouses to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Mississippi, states where the company already had distribution centers.
McKee said Ashley representatives told her the company loved being in Etna, and there was nothing the township did that resulted in the company leaving the 8320 Global Way S.W. location, which was its third-largest warehouse in the country.
"They wish they didn't have to do this, you know, leave the township, because they love Etna. They said Etna was a great place for them," she said. "They had nothing but good things to say about Etna."
In February, McKee sent an email to her fellow township trustees as well as county officials to inform them of Ashley's departure and the reasoning behind the move.
Arrival of Ashley Furniture was supposed to bring 300 jobs
In October 2020, JobsOhio announced Ashley Furniture would bring an estimated 300 jobs to an Etna Township warehouse. In a new release at the time, JobsOhio said Ashley would invest $70 million toward building the facility, along with machinery and equipment costs.
McKee said the company never reached full employment capacity before closing its Etna operations.
A $300,000 state grant was provided to connect Global Way north to Refugee Road in response to Ashley's arrival in the township. Etna Township and the City of Pataskala, along with the Licking County Transportation Improvement District and developers, are planning a project to widen Refugee to three lanes to accommodate increased traffic from new warehouses near Mink Street.
Ashley owns the building, which sits on 113 acres and covers more than 1 million square feet. Fitzsimmons said Grow Licking County is marketing the building to new tenants.
"We have had a couple of interested parties, but nothing has come to fruition yet. But we are actively marketing it," she said.
McKee said she hopes the building will be leased soon. She said she is contact regularly with an Ashley representative who is keeping her updated about the process.
mdevito@gannett.com
740-607-2175
Twitter: @MariaDeVito13
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Ashley Furniture closes Etna Township distribution center
