Owners of the Ultimate Sports Fan store in the Florida Mall say they’ll soon bring a wide array of quality goods at wholesale prices to a new overstock store planned for a mall outparcel they bought last week.
Iqbal Investments, a partnership of Ultimate Sports Fan owners and married couple Javed and Lubna Iqbal, paid $2.3 million for the 18,714-square-foot retail building at 1401 Florida Mall Ave. The 2.3-acre outparcel previously housed HomeFabrics & Rugs, and has 122 parking spaces.
The couple’s new venture is dubbed “Ultimate Overstock,” and $500,000 has been budgeted for extensive renovation of the building, to include new paint inside and out, two signs, tile floors, added shelving and cashier counters, and updating the electric wiring and lighting. MAC Construction of Clermont is leading the renovation, which has already begun and should be finished in May or June, Javed Iqbal told GrowthSpotter.
The couple sourced a $975,000 mortgage from Fidelity Bank of Florida to help finance the acquisition and new business.
Ultimate Overstock will offer everything from smart phones to tableware at near-wholesale prices, he said.
“Our slogan will be ‘Stop paying too much,'” Iqbal said. “We want people to pay almost wholesale. We’re going to buy cheap and we’re going to sell cheap.”
Iqbal said he got back Wednesday morning from a trade show in Las Vegas, shopping to stock the new store. Next month he will head to another trade show in China in his quest to bring customers the lowest prices.
The store will have four or five departments, Iqbal said, including one for sports apparel, much like that offered in Ultimate Sports Fan, as well as electronics and home goods with everything from sheets and curtains to cutlery and dishware.
Meanwhile, the Iqbals plan to keep the Ultimate Sports Fan store in the Florida Mall open.
“That’s my baby,” Iqbal said of the store that first opened in 1987, which the couple bought in 2012.
NAI Realvest principals Kevin O’Connor and Matt Cichocki negotiated the sale of the former fabric store on behalf of the Las Vegas-based seller, Katz & Katz LLC, while Imran Nazer of Premium Realty Advisors represented the buyer.
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