The retail landscape in St. Louis isn’t healthy. Vacancy is high, we’re famous for our dead malls and empty retail strips, and even new retail is struggling. But St. Louis is a large and diverse metro area, with a diverse retail sector. While standard retail suffers, some specialty and local retail is finding success. The latest indicator of this is Goebel & Co. Furniture opening a retail storefront in the former Monarch restaurant space at 7401 Manchester Road in Maplewood.
Goebel has been building to this point for years. We profiled the company back in 2012 when it was operating out of the Temtor Building at 8125 Michigan Avenue in far south city. The building was long home to a Coca-Cola syrup manufacturing operation. After sitting vacant for years, it was redeveloped into a mix of residential, retail, and office space. It’s most trafficked tenant was and still is Perennial Artisan Ales.
When Goebel outgrew the space, it relocated to a 6,500 square feet in Midtown Alley and the Locust Business District. That building has something of an office and showroom streetside, but not exactly a brick & mortar retail presence. The Maplewood location saw the Goebel sign erected today and is set to open this fall. The company continues to seek a larger space for its manufacturing operations.
7401 Manchester:
Goebel & Co. was founded in 2011 by St. Louis natives Martin Goebel, Nick Leidenfrost and Noah Alexander, the latter two of the Classic Cars Studio. The company specializes in
residential, commercial and hospitality furniture, having supplied product to Urban Chestnut Brewing Company, Vicia restaurant, The Libertine, 4 Hands Brewery, Washington University in Saint Louis, Monsanto/The Climate Corporation, Tommy Bahama New York, Christner Inc., and others.
From our 2012 profile: Design Week Feature: Goebel & Co. Furniture and How St. Louis Fosters New Design Enterprises
For Goebel, choosing St. Louis has much more to do with the resources the City has to offer his company than just a desire to return to his family’s home town. In fact, basing Goebel & Co. in St. Louis capitalizes on a number of competitive advantages innate to the City, its business culture, its geography, and the revitalization of the City’s classic building stock.
St. Louis’ first competitive advantage is found in the hardwoods preferred for their furniture being native to Eastern Missouri, including classic offerings in Cherry and Walnut, but also specialty woods like Siberian Elm which produces a distinct blonde coloration to the woods.
Goebel & Co. selected products:
