Oct. 25—HIGH POINT — The active south end of the High Point Market showroom district is poised for more growth.
Market exhibitor Ramtex Fabrics has plans pending with the city for ground-up construction of a five-story showroom at 211 E. Russell Ave. The company acquired the property, within the same block as its longtime existing showroom at 341 S. Wrenn St., last year and has since had the site cleared.
According to its website, Ramtex's corporate office is in Los Angeles, and the company is a wholesale fabric supplier.
It has submitted architectural plans to the city for a five-story showroom building with parking on the ground floor. The upper floors would be 4,525 square feet in size.
Ramtex will occupy the top floor and is offering three floors for lease to other Market exhibitors, with an approximate completion date of November 2024, according to the company's real estate marketing materials.
Ramtex doesn't need a rezoning from the city for its new building because its property is within the central business zoning district, which allows showrooms.
It's one of several showroom projects recently planned, under construction or completed within and around this district south of the railroad tracks.
Two blocks west, the newly constructed Furniture First showroom at 336 S. Main St. opened at fall Market earlier this month.
Within this block, commercial art dealer Art Addiction has broken ground on a 17,000-square-foot showroom it plans to have completed in time for the April 2024 Market.
The site is next to the company's previous showroom at 118 W. Russell Ave., which it constructed in 2017 and now leases to another Market exhibitor, Apricot Sofa Co., an upholstered furniture manufacturer.
A limited liability company last year got the opposite corner property at S. Elm Street and W. Russell Avenue rezoned by the city to support potential construction of a showroom, but no development plans for the site have been submitted to date.
A few blocks east, home furnishings company Schwung Home plans to move its showroom into the former Slane Hosiery Mills sock plant at 313 S. Centennial St., which it recently purchased and plans to renovate.