The year was 1983 and former Purdue student Mike Zeman was looking to start his own business after a few years as a home builder.  Starting with an odd collection of garage sale misfits, Mike opened Quality Consignment on Earl Avenue, behind the McDonald’s.  He sold a little bit of everything and then some.  Every week, Mike made the rounds of yard sales and auction houses throughout central Indiana finding merchandise to clean-up and resell at Quality Consignment.  The work was hard, the hours were long but he was young …. Then.

Six months later, Mike had the good fortune to be able to buy the former Firestone building at the corner of  9th and Ferry Streets and Quality Consignment moved to a larger location.  As the business grew, Mike added a few pieces of new furniture.  As he added more and more new furniture, Quality Consignment became Star Furniture in 1987.

In 1997, Mike purchased a small commercial lot on U.S. 52 West, across from the Klondike School.  He designed and built his first commercial building and moved Star Furniture to this new and unusual location. 

With Star Furniture growing every year, Mike continually was on the watch for up-and-coming areas of commercial and retail growth.  He noticed the east side of Lafayette, particularly Creasy Lane and out to the interstate looking promising.  In 2000, Mike purchased land on S.Creasy Lane, built another commercial building and moved Star Furniture to Creasy Lane. That building is now occupied by The Carpenter’s Son.

Always looking to grow but become even more efficient, Mike was strategizing to bring all his business interests within sight of each other.  That long range plan began with the opening of  Ashley Furniture HomeStore in 2001 on Creasy Lane at Fortune Drive, right behind Sam’s Club.  A year later, Mike bought the lot across from Ashley and built yet another new building and once again moved Star Furniture and also opened his third store, Furniture Express.    With the completion of a huge warehouse in 2005, just down Fortune Drive, his plan for Lafayette Furniture Center was realized.  

Now, in 2007, while none of the stores are physically moving, the business is moving ahead by combining all three stores under one brand name:  Star Furniture HomeStore, Star Furniture Select and Star Furniture Express.  Mike is now emphasizing that the family of STAR FURNITURE  stores is a locally owned and locally operated business. 

What started with 1,500 square feet selling used furniture has grown to a total of 170,000 square feet of  retail and warehouse space, selling beautiful new furniture in all styles and prices.  Today, STAR FURNITURE offers Lafayette’s largest selection of name brand furniture and accessories.  And with this success, Mike now has come to a point where he can direct the success of STAR FURNITURE for the benefit of others.  As of 2007, all profits from Star Furniture, Inc. are donated to benefit at-risk children and youth.     

So now you know where we’ve been.  And we’re very excited about where we’re going.  We hope you join us for this next adventure.