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Overland Sheepskin purchases Fairfield True Value building
Overland will take possession in May 2025 and convert building into warehouse
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
FAIRFIELD – Overland Sheepskin Co. announced that it has acquired the True Value building on West Burlington Avenue in Fairfield, and will take possession of it in May 2025.
Overland Sheepskin President Gabriel Openshaw told The Union that his company purchased the building at an auction in November, and plans to use it as a warehouse to accommodate its expanding operations.
“We’re excited about the growth of the business in general, and we’re opening more stores across the U.S.,” Openshaw said. “All of our fulfillment is out of Fairfield, both for our stores and our online shoppers. We need this [building] to grow our distribution presence.”
Overland Sheepskin is headquartered in Fairfield, and has been ever since 1982. According to the company’s website, Jim Leahy started the business in 1973 in Taos, New Mexico. Today, the company boasts 19 stores, concentrated in ski towns in the Rocky Mountains, but which also stretch from California to its most recent store addition in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Openshaw said the company has been able to grow by sticking to its classic and popular items such as slippers, coats and rugs.
“We’ve been pretty true to our roots,” he said. “We’re excited to continue to invest in Fairfield, which is a wonderful community that we’ve been part of for decades.”
Fifty-one years since its founding, the company remains in the hands of the Leahy family, owned by CEO Roger Leahy and his wife, Nancy.
As of Wednesday, Dec. 11, it was not clear how long True Value would continue its operations. Attempts to get comments from the store manager were unsuccessful.
The Internal Revenue Service posted on its website that the True Value building in Fairfield had been seized by the Department of Treasury for “nonpayment of internal revenue taxes due from Chariton Hardware Inc.,” and that the property was to be sold at auction on Nov. 20, 2024.
The Jefferson County Assessor’s Office shows that the building was constructed in 1994 by Hy-Vee. Hy-Vee vacated the building in 2011 and moved into its new building at 1300 W. Burlington. The following year, the building was purchased by Chariton Hardware, doing business as True Value.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
