After more than five years of planning, the Kean’s Fine Dry Cleaning at Highland Park Marketplace is open for business.
The new store is located in the 11,000-square-foot building that marks the second phase of the shopping center, which is located at the intersection of Highland Road and Perkins Road East. Kean’s shares the building with the new Juban’s concept restaurant Adrian’s, which opened earlier this month, and two still-vacant retail spaces.
Kean’s owner Rock Rockenbaugh has been anxious to open a store in the fast-growing, far eastern corner of the parish for several years. But the project at Highland Park Marketplace was delayed for a variety of reasons. Now that it’s completed, Rockenbaugh is relieved.
“The baby is birthed and we’re looking forward to success,” he says.
The new store is the seventh Kean’s location in the Capital Region and the company’s first new store since it shuttered nine locations and two of its three production facilities in a 2015 downsizing and reorganization.
At the time of the closures, Rockenbaugh said Kean’s had too many locations for the size of the market, especially given that more fabrics today are wash and wear and fewer people are dressing up.
In the two years since, Rockenbaugh says the market has stabilized but hasn’t improved. Kean’s still has two of its production facilities listed for sale, one at Jones Creek Road, the other on Perkins Road near College Drive. Rockenbaugh says a couple of potential buyers have shown interest but no purchase agreements are in the works.
—Stephanie Riegel
