Nearly a year after shuttering eight of its retail locations as part of a companywide downsizing, Kean’s Fine Dry Cleaning owner Rock Rockenbaugh has listed for sale the company’s location at 8967 Jefferson Highway, near the Interstate 12 on-ramp.
The 33,600-square foot property includes a 3,900-square-foot building that Kean’s has continued since the restructuring to operate as a storefront, though it no longer uses the site as a processing plant.
Rockenbaugh says the decision to try to sell the Jefferson Highway property, which is listed for an undisclosed price, is not evidence of further downsizing. Rather, he has been unsuccessful in selling the company’s location at 5664 Jones Creek Road—a store and processing plant that has been on the market since last fall—so he decided to list the Jefferson Highway property to see if it is more attractive to buyers.
“Whichever one sells first, I will most likely stay at the other one,” he says.
Should the Jefferson Highway location sell, Rockenbaugh says he will look for a small space to lease so he can continue to operate a store in the area.
Kean’s 2015 restructuring came after years of declining business. Over the past decade, the company’s sales declined by more than 50%— a nationwide trend that Rockenbaugh has attributed to changes in fashion and the move toward more casual workplace attire.
Still, the company is looking to expand into high-growth areas, and is moving forward with plans for a new location—what will now be its seventh—at the Highland Park Marketplace. Plans for the store have been in the works for more than three years but were delayed while the building’s anchor tenant—a Juban’s concept restaurant called Adrian’s—tried to finalize its plans.
Plans for Adrian’s were unveiled last week. The restaurant will be located in some 6,200 square feet of space in the 11,000-square-foot third phase of the retail development. Kean’s will occupy 1,200 square feet on the opposite side of the building and will have in-car service.
Rockenbaugh expects vertical construction on the site to begin soon and hopes to be open by the end of the year or early 2017, even though Adrian’s is not scheduled to open until mid-2017.
—Stephanie Riegel
