Representatives of Clay Township board of trustees, fire department and zoning committee toured the future home of Lute Supply (formerly JW Village Market/ Harts/Big Bear) 2 miles north of Portsmouth city limits. Lute Supply is a family owned company that began operations in Portsmouth, Ohio in 1952. The company has grown into one of the top 150 wholesale distributors of plumbing and heating and cooling in the United States. The company also boasts one of the largest kitchen and bath showroom networks in the tri-state area.
Brian Hancock, Senior V.P. explained the current headquarters serves branches in Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky and Indiana and has outgrown its current facilities. The company has operated two wholesale locations in Portsmouth and will now be able to combine these two locations into one at the new facility in phase one of the project. Phase two will be the renovation and relocation of the Company’s headquarters and Corporate offices.
The new location will be more than 96,000 square feet of buy-it-yourself homeowner products, professional sales/service counters, showrooms, offices and warehouse space.
Lute Supply plans to incorporate a “green” approach to design, construction and operations at the new location. A state of the art geothermal heating and cooling system and many other energy conserving technologies are planned. New customer convenience traffic and parking patterns to facilitate additional traffic are being developed. In addition, 4 new shipping/receiving docks and 2 customer loading areas are planned for the facility.
The demolition phase of the project is nearing completion. Chris Lute, CEO Lute Supply explained ”This location will be incredibly accessible to an increased number of customers. The shear size of this facility will allow us to present new products and services in a way we just couldn’t realize in our current location. I am overwhelmed with the responses we have already received from this community.”
We expect to be making the initial transition from our current locations to this facility as early as August” said Jason Lute, President and Chief Operating Officer. “Phase II of our plans will begin later this year and into 2010.”