Spartanburg shoppers will soon have a new place to get their kicks.
Asheville, N.C.-based Houser Shoes Inc. said Monday it will bring one of its GB Shoe Warehouses to the west side.
Houser Shoes has signed a lease on a 15,000-square-foot building at 190 E. Blackstock Road, beside the new Cowboy Brazilian Steakhouse. The building was formerly occupied by La-Z-Boy, which vacated the space in August 2010.
Gary Houser, founder and CEO of the company, said the store will open in July, just in time for back-to-school shopping. Construction crews were busy Monday working on renovating the building.
“We’ve been looking for a location in Spartanburg for the past eight or nine years, but we just haven’t been able to find a building that was the right fit,” Houser said. “This location became available, and we jumped at it. We felt it is a great opportunity for us and for the people of Spartanburg to find us easily.”
Houser, a veteran of the retail shoe business, founded his own company in 1976. The company has grown into a 10-store chain that he co-operates with his daughter, Beth Radcliffe.
The family-owned company has stores in Anderson, Greenville, Greenwood, Taylors and Columbia in South Carolina, as well as outlets in Augusta, Ga.(editor’s note—the outlet is located on Wrightsboro Road about 1 mile east of the Augusta Mall) , Lexington, Ky., Hendersonville, N.C., and Kingsport and Knoxville, Tenn.
Houser said the Spartanburg store is an ideal location for the company’s coverage of the Upstate and Western North Carolina.
The Bullchicks franchise opened in early 2012 after many, many months of delays and is now closed. A sign on the door across from Surrey Center says it will be closed for a few weeks due to repairs and staff development. All of the furniture and equipment in the restaurant remain. Bullchicks is a Texas based franchised specializing in 20 different flavors of chicken wings and 20 different toppings of burgers.
