Metropolitan Deluxe closes after battle with bankruptcy

Metropolitan Deluxe, a high-end retail fixture on the peninsula for almost 15 years, closed this week after 18 months of trying to climb out of bankruptcy.

Maddix Deluxe Inc., the Atlanta-based company that owns the Charleston store and two similar home-furnishings shops in Atlanta and Raleigh, filed for bankruptcy in July 2006. At the time it owed its creditors $2.2 million and had $1.7 million in assets, mostly inventory.

Last week, John Ragsdale Jr., the Atlanta trustee handling the case, filed to dissolve the business rather than continue efforts to resuscitate it.

The company's chief executive officer, Tim Boyd, could not be reached for comment.

There was no mention of the bankruptcy or store closings Thursday on the company's Web site, but the last of the shop's furniture and home goods were marked 90 percent off this week.

Posters in the window of the locked and nearly empty Market Street shop Thursday read, "Farewell adios sale." Shoppers who picked over the remainders in recent weeks said employees told them the business would reopen in Las Vegas.

The chain opened its Charleston store at 164 Market in October 1994 under the name Maddix Deluxe.

The business at one point grew to 10 locations, including shops in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee.

When it sought to reorganize its finances under bankruptcy court protection, Maddix Deluxe had almost 50 employees. It had closed five stores since early 2005, a year when it lost $375,564 on $7.2 million in revenue.

In the first five months of 2006, the retailer slowed its losses but still posted income $40,469 below the break-even point.

On Wednesday, Ragsdale, the trustee, hired Linda Page of Mount Pleasant-based Page's Thieves Market Inc. to appraise and possibly auction the leftover inventory.

Ragsdale declined to comment on most aspects of the case. When asked if the chain ever came close to regaining solvency, he said: "That is one of the things that quite literally is trying to be worked out now."

Reach Kyle Stock at 937-5763 or kstock@postandcourier.com.