Another proud member of Austin’s downtown business history bites the wrecking ball’s dust.

Usem’s Inc. auto dealership is gone, clearing the way for construction of a new Mower County Jail and Justice Center.

It leaves a hole in the heart of downtown Austin and the hearts of car-buyers for over seven decades.

Think what the reaction will be, when the “Robbins block” is cleared?

Before looking ahead, one has to look back into the history of Robbins Furniture and Design Gallery.

Three-quarters of a century ago in time.

Eli Robbins came first.

He had been working for his father in the furniture business in St. Paul.

Eli’s father gave him $500 in used furniture and fruit jars and told him to go out and find a place to open a business of his own.

Eli came to Austin and found a place on Chatham Street (First Street Northeast across from the Mower County Courthouse).

He opened Austin Furniture Company and moved into an apartment above the store with his wife to raise a family.

Eli’s son, Lee, joined the family business in 1955.

Eli retired in 1970, leaving the business to his son.

Lee expanded the business beyond his father’s wildest dreams beginning in 1983, when he raised its prominence by going national.

Soon enough, homeowners from coast to coast were ordering furniture from the Austin-based business.

While his father, Eli, focused on floor coverings, his son, Lee, looked at the faltering furniture store industry in the late 1970s and saw an opportunity: Advertise in national magazines and attract more customers.

The business grew through the peak years of 1999-2000.

His son, Michael, remembered the transition thusly, “My father was really the entrepreneur of the family. Things were really down in the furniture industry in the early 1980s and this is when his entrepreneurship came forward.”

The younger Robbins continued that business emphasis, when he took over as president and owner. “The whole premise was to sell a lot of furniture at short mark-ups,” he said. “When you do that, you have to sell a lot of furniture and we did. It was amazing how much furniture we were selling. Sales just kept going up, up, up.”

Forty people once worked in the store handling walk-in customers, but mainly the business’ booming national sales accounts.

Michael Robbins worked in the corporate world outside Austin for 10 years before returning home 16 years ago to join the family business.

Lee Robbins died in April 1997, leaving behind his wife, Donna, and their two sons, Jeffrey, an attorney, and Michael.

The Austin store’s founder, Eli Robbins, died in September 1999.

Now, the family-owned business has died.

County owns

building now

On Tuesday, Mower County and the Robbins family (Donna is president of the family’s downtown business real estate corporation) closed on the long-anticipated business transaction.

Mower County paid $427,000 for the Robbins Furniture and Design Gallery real estate. Previously, the county acquired the Thoroughbred Carpet and George’s Pizza real estate in the block.

Owners of a northeast corner parcel are slated to go to court with Mower County and face condemnation proceedings.

Mower County is using a $1.5-million grant from the city of Austin to acquire the square block of property to develop a geothermal field to heat the new Mower County Jail and Justice Center to be constructed between Second and Fourth Avenues Northeast.

Also this week, the Austin Housing and Redevelopment Authority Board of Commissioners voted 5-1 against selling or giving the county the southeast corner of the block where a Twin Towers parking lot is located.

The Robbins Furniture and Design Gallery business has been vacated by its owners. “The County owns the building now,” Michael Robbins said. Thoroughbred Carpet and George’s Pizza remain occupied.

To Austinites who remember, the Chatham Street businesses were signposts of local history: The Tower teen center was located in a second story location, Tommie’s Supper Club, Austin Hotel and the Alcove piano bar, too.

When the three-story, 75,000 square foot Robbins Furniture and Design Gallery building comes down, it will mark the end of the oldest business to operate downtown at the same location.

Business

decision

“Business is not good,” Michael Robbins said frankly. “That’s why I decided not to reopen.”

“With the economy being the way it is and the furniture business being so closely tied to the housing business, it’s in a bad state right now,” he said. “The housing market is awful, and if people can barely afford to pay their mortgages, they’re not going to be able to buy a lot of furniture.”

Today’s furniture customers are buying “disposable” furniture, according to Robbins, and foregoing purchases of quality items.

In other words, he was saying the “time was right” to close the business.

Negotiations have gone on for more than a year between the family and Mower County. The youngest Robbins created a novel “Jail Sale” marketing promotion and plastered store windows with signs depicting bars on a jail cell.

Observers will recall when discussions began in earnest seven years ago about how to solve the county’s jail over-crowding problems the first idea proposed was to build a skyway across First Street Southeast from the courthouse to the Robbins building, which would become a detention facility.

The idea quickly disappeared from officials’ minds.

The “Jail Sale” is final.

In reflecting upon the family’s legacy in Austin, Michael dwelled upon his father Lee’s memories.

“My father was a great guy to work for,” he said. “Everybody liked him very much.”

“He was very affable and likable and he enjoyed thinking of entrepreneurial ideas rather than the day-to-day portion of the business,” he said.

An example of his father’s business brainstorming occurred in the late 1970s, when he purchased the Lansing Corners Supper Club. The business started by Don Watts grew even more popular under the Robbins ownership, which lasted until Lee sold it to Ron Valentine.

Meanwhile, his mother, Donna, a former Austin City Council Member, preferred the background of the family’s business to the limelight.

Micheal’s brother, Jeffrey, chose not to be a part of the business.

Robbins also praised the business’ employees for their loyalty and professionalism through the years.

There is no turning back for the business. In a formal statement to the media, he said, “In light of the current economic conditions, we have decided not to relocate our furniture enterprise.”

“We have enjoyed our 75 years relationship with Austin and the surrounding communities,” he went on to say, “ I want to thank our loyal customers and vendors for three generations of business and support.”

Today, his mother is wintering in Florida and Michael is wrapping up loose business ends.

Anyone who expects to hear sorrow and regrets over the closing will be surprised.

“I think there are people who have fonder ties locally and among our national customers,” he said. “Over a year and a half ago, when the economy first started to turn sour, I had to think if this happens ‘What will I do?’” he said.

“By the time it all came to pass, that feeling of regret — that this is such a tragedy — isn’t there.”

“There’s no tragedy here. This was a business decision,” he said. “It’s a building. That’s all. Just a building.”