Downtown advocate moving business out of core

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This article was published 22/01/2024 (606 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Downtown Biz’s most vocal and visible proponent says he’ll continue to work to improve the city’s core even though he’s moving his business to another part of town.

Jordan Ludwig and his brother and partner Dylan are moving their business, Brandon Business Interiors, which currently sits at 1525 Pacific Ave. in downtown Brandon. It has grown so much over the last few years, Ludwig said he needed a bigger space.

“We’ve kind of just been bursting at the seams in our existing location,” Ludwig said. “If anybody’s been in our store over the last few years, you will notice that our showroom, it actually turned into overflow warehouse space. We’re just having a hard time keeping up with customer demand and the physical confines the facility we have right now.”

And so, Ludwig said, the brothers have secured a new location in the industrial park in the East End with more room for equipment, inventory and staging areas. The business also needed room to accomodate the large semi trucks and trailers that deliver its furniture, he said.

Earlier this month, Ludwig made a plea to Brandon City Council for an infusion into the collapsed non-profit Downtown Biz organization of $150,000, to help get it off the ground again.

He and other downtown business owners were selling memberships for a new Downtown Biz and told council about the business owners’ hopes that a revived Downtown Biz would help revitalize the core and support businesses there.

Ludwig said, while his business is moving out of the area, he is still passionate about improving the city’s core and will continue do so from his new location.

“I’ve just kind of been the most vocal and probably the most visible (downtown advocate,” Ludwig said. There’s a lot of work being done behind the scenes that I cannot take nearly any or all of the credit for. I’ve just kind of been the guy that’s been talking about it the most. I am partial to the downtown. I love the downtown. Just because my business is moving a little further away. It does not change that fact and I will still be involved at the exact same level that I am right now.”

Brandon Business Interiors is a family owned company that was first started by Ludwig’s parents in 1991. This is not the first time Brandon Business Interiors grew out of its walls. Brandon Business Interiors provides office, hospital and hospitality furniture and supplies. It serves the entire province and has business outside of Manitoba. The new space in the East End will trade their current space of 3,800 square feet for a much roomier 5,400 square feet.

“All our offices will be up on a mezzanine. That frees up all of that floor space. Then we’re just going to have a small 1,000-square-foot showroom. It basically quadruples our warehouse space, but we will shrink our physical showroom space. Because we find very few of our customers actually come and use it.”

The building that Brandon Business Interiors currently sits in is listed for sale at $809,000. Ludwig said they will be clearing all of their showroom furniture before moving into the new location, which is expected to happen sometime this summer.

» khenderson@brandonsun.com