It might seem like a nightmare for Maibach’s Home Furnishing to move hundreds of pieces of furniture, one by one, to a new building, but the end result for the weeks of work will be a dream come true for the company.

Next month, Maibach’s will open its second store and its first in Medina County.

For more than 100 years, the family-owned Maibach’s has been located in Sterling in Wayne County. But the company is expanding to 5001 Grande Shops Ave. in Medina Township.

“If you don’t grow in this business and day and age, you’re done for,” company President James Maibach said. James Maibach, president of Maibach’s Home Furnishing, stands in the youth gallery section of the new store opening soon at Medina Grande Shops in Medina Township.Bridget Commisso | Staff Photographer The new store, which is set to open Feb. 1, will not be a replica of the original on Kauffman Avenue in Sterling.

“We did not want to duplicate ourselves,” Maibach said. The new location “will be certainly more chic. … We intend it to be more ‘hip’ to fit the clientele that will be up there.”

This was the plan for quite a while to open its store to the Medina market, Maibach said. Maibach’s was not actively looking for new locations, he said, but when the Zaremba Group, the owner of Grande Shops Plaza, contacted him with the idea of locating there, he knew he had found a perfect opportunity.

Medina has “a lot of growth potential and the dynamics fit extremely well with who we want to be,” Maibach said, adding Medina has not had a furniture store for some time.

“We are not obviously a big-box store. We are not a cheap furniture outlet. We believe in value and quality and service. I believe the community of Medina holds those same values.”

In its new location, Maibach’s will be one of the only family-owned and locally owned stores operating around large national retailers. The store will be located between retailers Jo-Ann Fabrics and Bed Bath and Beyond. Across the street are Wal-Mart and Kohl’s.

“I think it will prove what we can do and give us a chance to show what a mom-and-pop place can do,” said Maibach, whose grandfather founded the store in 1905.

Maibach said in addition to having 21,000 square feet of showroom space, the Medina Township store will offer personalized service through in-home consultations.

He said the store does not provide paint, wall coverings or draperies. “But give us a bare room with those things and we have the capabilities to decorate your walls. We have lamps and accessories and not to mention the finest furniture around.”

“It’s very customer- and user-friendly,” said Margie Fields of the West Virginia architecture firm the Connie Post Companies, who served as store planner for the new Maibach’s location. She said the focal point of the store will be a design hub where all the special order designs will be placed and stored.

Maibach said the new store will be carrying the same name brands as the Sterling location, but will offer their more contemporary collections. Some of the name brands include Smith Brothers of Berne, Norwalk and Berkline and mattress options from Tempur-Pedic and Simmons.

“The store has a more urban and contemporary look, not only in the design offerings but also in the design approach,” said Dave Coll, creative director for the Connie Post Companies.

“Some of the architectural environments were actually inspired by some of (Connie Post Companies CEO’s) trips to Paris. … It’s going to be a very fashionable showroom,” Coll said.

After being submersed in expansion planning and discussions for months, Maibach said he cannot help but think of the next step.

“I cannot say that the thought (of a third store) has never crossed my mind,” he said. “But one store at a time.”

Cable changes The portion of Wadsworth residents who subscribe to Time Warner Cable may no longer be able to receive the city’s public access channels.

The city announced last week it no longer will provide at no cost Public, Educational and Government (PEG) channel feeds to Time Warner. This decision comes after six months of negotiations.

Prior to six months ago, Time Warner paid the city about $125,000 annually for the channels as part of a franchise agreement with the city, said Chris Easton, Wadsworth’s director of public service. The amount is 60 percent of the total operating costs of the three stations because around 60 percent of the city’s cable subscribers are with Time Warner.

Time Warner, however, pulled its funding for the channels after recent government legislation on cable franchises required them only to be franchised with the state.

“The city and Time Warner have shared costs of PEG programming for over 15 years. Wadsworth has had a tradition of providing excellence in PEG programming in the community but the cost of this programming should not be the responsibility of City of Wadsworth Cable Customers alone,” Easton said in statement.

Chris Thomas, director of government and media relations with Time Warner of Northeast Ohio, explained the recent legislation says cable companies now do not have to be franchised locally or to pay for local channels. The city of Wadsworth is “saying that if we do what the state law tells us not to do, then they are going to withhold the programming,” Thomas said.

He said Time Warner carries 75 to 80 public access channels in Northeast Ohio, but no community other than Wadsworth requires it to pay for the channels.

Unlike many communities, however, Wadsworth is a cable service provider through Wadsworth Cable.

“We’re certainly willing to carry the programming, just like in any other community where they provide it,” Thomas said.