Scott Zawitz, owner of Fort Pitt Furniture in Chicago, is a hard person to catch \u00e2\u20ac\u201dmostly because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s continually traveling around the country emptying hotel rooms of their furniture.
\n
\nMost recently, he was at the Drake in New York City fielding phone calls and prodding tired workers. But piloting this business is all worth it.
\n
\nFort Pitt buys upscale furniture from hotels that are either remodeling rooms or going out of business. In the case of the Drake, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the latter\u00e2\u20ac\u201dit is going condo. Fort Pitt buys the contents of the rooms and bring the pieces back to Chicago to sell in its 180,000-square-foot showroom.<\/p>\n
Some of the buyers are less-pricey hotels and motels, nursing homes, churches, and model home decorators. In fact, a big client is HGTV, whose television show hosts buy the items to fix up homes for a small price.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153People have been in here from Design on a Dime and Designed to Sell,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Zawitz explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They are on a budget and are looking for the lease expensive way to furnish a house nicely.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Whatever is left is sold to the public directly from the warehouse. And there are many, many nice things left.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some other businesses like this sell crap,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Zawitz said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But we have more Marshall Field\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quality items. In fact, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even want to associate myself with the others\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwe aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t in the same league.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
For a nice armoire that retails for $3,000-$4,000, expect to pay no more than $199 at Fort Pitt. A marbled-topped bar and TV cabinet from the St. Regis, which retailed at $6,000 sold for $399 at Fort Pitt.<\/p>\n
Recently a customer came into the warehouse to buy furniture for a 10,000-square-foot Kenwood mansion. He was getting the house ready to sell and wanted nice furnishings.<\/p>\n
Zawitz\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grandfather started the business 30 years ago. The first furniture came from the Fort Pitt Hotel in Pittsburgh\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhence the name. Twenty-five years ago, the business moved to Chicago\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Bridgeport neighborhood.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He and a friend started out as contractors,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Zawitz explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153While they were working at another hotel they saw someone else doing this and they decided to give it a try.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153When they first started, they would sell the furniture right out of the hotel rooms.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
After Zawitz negotiates prices with the owners, his employees empty furniture from the hotel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rooms. He figures they average 3,000-5,000 rooms per year.
\nThe hotels they have serviced include The Trump International Hotel and the St. Regis Hotel in New York City, The Four Seasons Hotel in Boston, and the Chase Park Plaza Hotel in St. Louis.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153As far as cost goes, every job is different,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153First you pay the hotel and then you supply all the labor and expertise.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The furniture Fort Pitt removes includes couches, chairs, dressers, dining sets, armoires, beds, side tables, table and floor lamps, and office furniture. They also remove and sell mattresses, linens, televisions (which come with a three-month guarantee), refrigerators, rugs, and wall hangings.<\/p>\n
Since most hotels turn over their furnishing every three to 10 years, nothing is very old, although some items are damaged; according to Zawitz, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mostly typical wear and tear.<\/p>\n
Zawitz said Fort Pitt does a brisk business in used mattresses and that a double mattress generally sells for $75. It offers furniture delivery for an additional charge.<\/p>\n
The furniture it resells is manufactured by some of the highest quality furniture companies in the United States and Europe, such as Stiffel, Drexel, and Thomasville. Many of the pieces feature inlaid designs and have granite and marble surfaces. Most of the upholstered pieces are covered with top-quality fabric.<\/p>\n
Fort Pitt often has specials on entire rooms of furniture and, because turnover is so rapid, Zawitz urges shoppers to check the warehouse often.<\/p>\n
At Fort Hill, business is good, so much so, said Zawitz, that in the past five years it has quadrupled in size.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The past couple of years, business has gone through the roof,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A lot more hotels are updating more often. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like keeping up with the Joneses.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Cooper Used Furniture in Chicago also reclaims and sells used hotel room furniture, but its stock tends toward the lower end as it resells to economy hotel chains like Days Inn and sells to the public from its 7-story warehouse on South Halsted Street.<\/p>\n
Contact Information
\nFort Pitt Furniture Liquidators
\n1400 W. 37th St.
\nChicago, IL 60609
\n773-247-3523
\nWebsite: www.fortpittfurniture.com
\nShowroom hours: M-Sat. 9:30-5:30, closed Sundays<\/p>\n
Cooper Furniture & Carpet Co., Inc.
\n1929 S. Halsted St.
\nChicago 60608
\n312-226-2299
\nShowroom hours: M-Sat. 8 – 6, Sun. 10 – 5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Scott Zawitz, owner of Fort Pitt Furniture in Chicago, is a hard person to catch \u00e2\u20ac\u201dmostly because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s continually traveling around the country emptying hotel rooms of their furniture. Most recently, he was at the Drake in New York City fielding phone calls and prodding tired workers. But piloting this business is all worth it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-furniture-world-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}