FAYETTEVILLE — Acumen Brands, a growing online retailer, will set up shop next month in the old post office building on the downtown square, according to Nicholas Sammer, vice president and general manager with the Fayetteville-based company.
Acumen and Jim Huson, the new owner of the historic building, have agreed to terms of a three-year lease beginning Aug. 1, although Huson said Thursday he is still waiting for final lease approval from company executives.
Sammer said Acumen is excited to open a retail store for two of its online brands: Country Outfitter, which sells western apparel; and Maple & West, a designer handbag merchant.
"It's about being a part of the Northwest Arkansas community and being able to showcase our great product and company," he said. "Having a retail location is a natural progression of promoting and investing in the area."
The proposed lease with Huson is for all of the roughly 13,600-square-foot, 102-year-old building. Sammer said Acumen is still working on a plan for subleasing a portion of the old post office. Neither party would disclose how much Acumen will pay in rent each month.
Acumen Brands was founded in 2009 by John James, a former family practice physician, and Terry Turpin, a former partner in ThompsonMurray, a retail marketing agency, before it sold to Saatchi & Saatchi in 2004. The company offers several e-commerce websites, including Country Outfitter; Maple & West; Tough Weld Workwear; and Scrub Shopper, a medical outfit retailer. It has a 200,000-square-foot distribution center on Shiloh Drive, south of Mount Comfort Road, and Sammer said the company employs about 170 people. Investors include New York-based General Atlantic; Dillard's Inc. of Little Rock; and Noro-Moseley Partners, a venture capital firm based in Atlanta, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The old post office building has not had a tenant since January 2009, when the last in a series of restaurants, Urban Table Bar & Grill closed. Huson purchased the building for $1.3 million last month from Ron Bumpass, a retired attorney whose family had owned the old post office since 1977.
Huson, who owns Doe's Eat Place franchises in Fayetteville and Bentonville, said he was excited to breathe new life into what he called "the most attractive location in Fayetteville." Huson said he would consider moving Doe's — or leasing the building to another restaurant — after the three-year lease with Acumen Brands ends.