THOMASVILLE — An eight-acre West Jackson Street site is being prepared to become the site of a support and call center for 21 Ashley Home Stores.

An Ashley customer service and delivery scheduling call center now on Industrial Boulevard will be moved to the 1165 West Jackson site. Support services — advertising, merchandising, accounting — also will be housed there.

The facility will serve Ashley Home Stores in Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia owned by Thomasville resident Russell Turner.

“It probably will be a nine-month project,” Turner said, adding that the construction contract was awarded to CCH, a Thomasville business.

Office functions will be located in a house moved to the site from Milestone Plantation. A barn moved from the plantation will house a meeting room and exercise space.

The house will face a pond at the front of the property, with parking behind the building.

“It will look like a house and a barn that have always been there,” said Russell, owner of Russell Turner Furniture Holding Corp.

Shelley Zorn, Thomasville Payroll Development Authority (PDA) executive director, said Turner’s facility is a $2 million investment in the community.

“Last year, he created 28 new jobs,” Zorn said.

Turner expects the local employee number to grow.

Turner said Ashley Home Stores, a 75-year-old company headquartered in Wisconsin, has more than 1,050 stores in the United States and abroad. An Ashley furniture store is on East Pinetree Boulevard in Thomasville.

Turner’s support personnel is now in various Thomasville locations. 

“All the support will be moving there,” Turner said.

  

Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1820