Warehouse 55, a two-story showroom filled with vintage and antique items, is leaving downtown Aurora in October and moving into a new space in Batavia.
The new location at 160 First St. in downtown Batavia will allow the store to operate on a single floor, something manager Mindy Schloss said they’ve needed for years, according to a press release announcing the store’s move.
The showroom currently operates out of a two-story building at 55 S. Lake St. in downtown Aurora, which has “a lot of stairs,” according to owner Mark Allen Shouldeen.
“You have to use stairs to go to the second floor, you have to use stairs to come into the building,” Shouldeen told The Beacon-News on Friday, noting that Warehouse 55 gets a lot of elderly customers and customers with mobility issues. “It limits them to what they can do and see in the store.”
Shouldeen said the business has been looking for a new space for nearly three years. The business partners considered spaces in Aurora, but nothing ultimately panned out.
Then they happened upon the space in downtown Batavia.
Warehouse 55 opened in Aurora in September 2019, according to past reporting. Starting with 30 vendors, it eventually expanded to about 50 once it started using the second floor, per the news release about the store’s new location. Warehouse 55 also has a second, boutique location in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood, per its website.
Chicago resident Karen Murray and her daughter Jill shop in 2023 at the Christmas Market event at Warehouse 55 in downtown Aurora. Warehouse 55 will be moving to Batavia in October. (David Sharos/For The Beacon-News)
Shouldeen came from a background as an interior designer, and he said he used to run markets in Naperville, meaning he already knew some vendors when he and Schloss decided to start the showroom in Aurora.
But his interest in vintage home furnishings goes back even further, he said.
“Since I was like 12 years old, I’d be garbage picking furniture and stuff and flipping it, making it, painting it, all that kind of stuff,” Shouldeen said. “It was like, my thing.”
Warehouse 55’s last day at the Aurora location will be Oct. 5, according to Shouldeen. He said it will have a moving sale starting Sept. 12.
And it is set to open in Batavia on Oct. 18, in time for its annual holiday market set for the weekend beginning Friday, Oct. 24.
“Our vendors are true vintage Christmas vendors,” Shouldeen said. “People love to come to us because it brings back the past (of) their grandparents and everything.”
While the new space will now be a single floor instead of two, the old and new buildings are similar in terms of square footage, according to Shouldeen. But the Aurora location has a lot of “wasted space” in terms of its layout, he said. He expects the Batavia location to allow the shop more space for the vendors who sell vintage items.
And he is enthusiastic about the Batavia building’s high ceilings and character.
“It’s just a great space,” Shouldeen said.
Nevertheless, Shouldeen, who lives in Aurora, said he’ll miss the regular customers in the immediate area, though he said they’re “being supportive and saying that they are going to come (to) the new space.”
But he’s also excited about reaching new people.
“This new move that we’re doing has brought us so many more new customers now, so many people from Batavia that never knew about us that are coming in the Aurora store now just to see what we’re like, and they’re excited that we’re moving there,” Shouldeen said. “It’s kind of nice how it’s bringing us another new customer base.”
The city of Batavia has also been supportive of Warehouse 55, according to Shouldeen.
“It’s just really great what the city of Batavia does for their businesses,” he said.
Now, the store owner said the business is not going to be doing much differently in Batavia. But the new layout may enable Warehouse 55 to bring in pop-up vendors on weekends, though customers probably shouldn’t expect to see that until the holiday rush ends, according to Shouldeen.
“We will kind of have a space for that now when you walk in,” he said. “Having people come in on the weekends to sell coffee or pastries, that kind of stuff.”
mmorrow@chicagotribune.com