After 80 years of business, Homemakers Furniture and Interiors will be closing its doors. As they wind down operations, they are offering discounted final sales, up to 50% off the original sales price. The building, located at 611 West Russell St., will then become a new home for applied innovation, technology and training.

In 1945, S.O. & Lois Smith started the business in downtown Fayetteville, and their son Joel
Smith continued their legacy of providing exceptional customer service to Fayetteville,
Cumberland County, and the surrounding areas. Although this was a tough decision, Joel was
presented with a unique opportunity for the beautiful building to continue serving this community for decades to come.

“We’ve shared countless memories and milestones with you, and those moments will stay with
us forever. Thank you for being part of our journey,” stated Joel Smith and the Homemakers
Team in a press release.

Continuing the legacy of service to Fayetteville and Cumberland County, including Fort Bragg,
Fayetteville Cumberland County Economic Development Corporation (FCEDC) and the Community Development Foundation (CDF) intend to open a center for innovative companies, from which they can launch operations that will shape tomorrow’s technology.

“We are going to use this space to be a flexible and adaptive place for innovative defense and technology companies looking to get started here in Fayetteville and Cumberland County, or perhaps to have their first operations here in our community, where they can recruit transitioning soldiers, where they can train their future workers and where they can demonstrate and vet their new technologies, displaying them for potential use by the military or by other private or public sector users,” remarked FCEDC CEO Robert Van Geons.

The CDF purchased the 35,800 SF facility and through this partnership the organizations will offer training spaces, secured technology labs, advanced computing infrastructure, a large lecture hall/special event space and private offices for technology driven defense companies.

“This will be different from what other communities have done. It'll be an expansion of some of the things we do here at our current facility at 201 Hay Street, the CORE Innovation Center, where we do have Fort Bragg Research Institute and other small, independent defense focused businesses. So it'll grow that in size and capacity, and I think this will be a very unique place in the capabilities of the people and the equipment we will have in there, specifically designed to work well with our friends at Fort Bragg and in the military in terms of defense innovation and cybersecurity and the like,” added Van Geons.

The timeline for moving into the space is dependent on the furniture store selling their inventory. Van Geons estimates they may be able to move into the space this fall.

“We are grateful for Joel’s willingness to work with us, and we look forward to sharing more
about this exciting project that would not be possible without the help of Senator Thom Tillis,
whose office helped secure the required funding and the ongoing support of the City of Fayetteville and Cumberland County”, said Van Geons in a press release. “However, today is about Homemakers Furniture and their 80 years in our community, we hope everyone will stop by to visit Joel and his team during their final sale.”