DeWITT — Stevens Office Interiors, a company that specializes in office-furniture products, has consolidated its operations in DeWitt and sold its previous Syracuse building to a Rochester food market. Stevens on April 28 opened a new 10,000-square-foot showroom at 6804 Manlius Center Rd. in the town of DeWitt. It’s part of a 22,000-square-foot space that […]
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DeWITT — Stevens Office Interiors, a company that specializes in office-furniture products, has consolidated its operations in DeWitt and sold its previous Syracuse building to a Rochester food market.
Stevens on April 28 opened a new 10,000-square-foot showroom at 6804 Manlius Center Rd. in the town of DeWitt. It’s part of a 22,000-square-foot space that also includes 12,000 square feet of warehouse space.
The company was very familiar with the location, says Thomas Maugeri, president and co-owner of Stevens Office Interiors, which is the TK largest office-furniture provider in Central New York, according to CNYBJ Research.
“We thought it would be good to have everything under one roof,” he says.
While operating in its previous 25,000-square-foot space at 1449 Erie Blvd. East in Syracuse, Stevens Office Interiors also utilized 10,000 square feet of warehouse space at 6804 Manlius Center Road.
The firm’s previous space on Erie Blvd. included a 17,000-square-foot showroom, which made it “very confusing” for customers because it was “too expansive,” says Maugeri.
“So, we shrunk our footprint, made it more effective, and put … today’s type of furniture that caters to today’s marketplace in a new showroom,” he adds.
In its consolidated location, Stevens Office Interiors operates a 10,000-square-foot showroom with 12,000 square feet of warehouse space.
Stevens signed a lease with Butternut Manlius LLC for the additional space at the Manlius Center Road location. Maugeri declined to disclose the length of time on the lease.
Besides the move to DeWitt, Maugeri and Patrick Lewis, company vice president and Stevens’ co-owner, sold their Erie Boulevard location to Rochester–based Asia Food Market, Inc.
“They are a market of Asian foods and a distributor of Asian foods; they’re in a process now of beginning a renovation of the building,” says Lewis.
The building acquisition closed in February, he adds. Both men declined to disclose the acquisition price on their building and how much it cost to move the operations from Syracuse to DeWitt.
Smaller showroom
The new Stevens showroom displays the furniture, technology, and the “edgy” products that the “younger generation” expects as they enter the workforce, according to Maugeri.
He also believes it’s a better working environment for his employees.
“It’s open landscape in here today versus a lot of cubicles, which fosters probably a little smaller footprint but it doesn’t feel so confining,” he says.
Stevens Office Interiors’ customers include Syracuse University (SU) and several local campuses of the State University of New York (SUNY), where the learning process, Maugeri contends, is “probably more effective” in a collaborative environment.
“The old style learning was you learned by yourself in solitude. Today, you learn more with teamwork, collaboration, involvement. The furniture that we have allows that to happen,” he says.
For example, the furniture Stevens sells is “mobile,” so people can work in teams or in a classroom style format, Maugeri notes.
Besides SU and SUNY campuses, Stevens’ customers include Welch Allyn, a medical-device maker in Skaneateles Falls; Bethesda, Md.–based Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT), a defense contractor that operates CNY locations in Salina and Owego; Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), a New York City–based pharmaceutical firm with a location in DeWitt; C&S Cos., a Salina–based firm specializing in engineering, architecture, planning, environmental, and construction services; and the U.S. Army’s Fort Drum base northeast of Watertown.
About Stevens
Stevens Office Interiors is an authorized dealer for Steelcase, Inc. (NYSE: SCS), which says it’s a Grand Rapids, Mich.–based developer and manufacturer of “furnishings, products, and services” for office settings in “the world’s leading organizations.”
In addition to Steelcase, Stevens also sells products from manufacturers that include Jasper, Ind.–based Kimball Office and National Office Furniture, both units of Kimball International, Inc. (NASDAQ: KBALB); Marlton, N.J.–based Global Upholstery Co., Inc; Oxnard, Calif–based ERG International; and Sheboygan, Wisc.–based Mayline Company, LLC, according to Maugeri and Lewis.
Stevens Office Interiors employs 35 people, which includes a mix of full- and part-time workers. The firm has no plans to hire additional employees in 2014, Maugeri says.
Both men declined to disclose any revenue information about their company.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
