Big Lots and Planet Fitness will be moving into the Marketplace of Warsaw Shopping Center.
Sullivan Wickley Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer John Murphy confirmed that Big Lots will have approximately a 30,000-square-foot store in the Marketplace, which will extend from the former Pier One to Dunham’s locations.
“The Big Lots of today is different from the Big Lots of yesterday,” he said, attributing that to Big Lots’ acquisition of Broyhill Furniture a couple years ago. A “big chunk” of Big Lots’ business now – about 20% – is nice furniture, along with home goods, apparel, etc. Murphy said Big Lots’ exterior and interior look different than it did in the 1980s and encouraged people to check out the Big Lots website at www.biglots.com to see how the store has changed.
Big Lots previously had a store on Lake Street in Warsaw but was closed over a decade ago.
Come the holiday season, Murphy said, “The residents of Warsaw will be very pleased with what they offer today.”
Planet Fitness will be located where Sears was previously. Murphy confirmed that Workout Anytime will remain. “They appeal to different customers,” he said.
Other businesses in the shopping center include the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Shoe Sensation, Subway and other outlets.
Fourteen percent of the Marketplace is occupied today, with more businesses to move into the shopping center, but Murphy declined to elaborate at this time as they are in negotiations. However, he said, by the end of the year, the shopping center will look entirely different.
Sullivan Wickley purchased the shopping center in 2021, which had been in bankruptcy for a while.
“It is a project to remove blight from the front door of the city,” Murphy said. “Residents will be pleasantly surprised.”
As the renovations and redevelopment to the shopping center continue, it will become vibrant once again.
More information on Sullivan Wickley can be found online at https://www.sullivanwickley.com/; its information on the Marketplace can be found online at https://www.sullivanwickley.com/leases/marketplace-at-warsaw/.
