Smitty's Building Supply, the Northern Virginia-based LBM dealer that rode hot growth in the Washington suburbs and then plunged into bankruptcy with the market's crash, will close its Alexandria, Va., location by Dec. 1 and consolidate operations in its Manassas, Va., yard. The is the same yard that Smitty's spent $1.5 million to retrofit a few years ago so that it could appeal to infill builders near Washington. ProSales featured the yard in its February 2008 cover story, "Urban Outfitters."
The move follows the closure of Smitty's four window showrooms this summer, about the same time that Smitty's emerged reorganized from six months under Chapter 11 bankruptcy-law protection from creditors.
Smitty's said in a statement that the family controlling the dealer "attributed the need to close the Alexandria location to functional obsolescence induced by a consumer migration to so-called 'big box' home improvement centers."
Smitty's ranked No. 57 on the 2009 ProSales 100, with $66.3 million in sales in 2008 (down from $91.5 million in 2007), virtually all of them to pro builders and remodelers.
