Gracious Home, One of New York's Most Distinctive and Beloved Home Furnishings and Hardware Retailers, Acquired by Americas Retail Flagship Fund LLC

NEW YORK, Dec. 8, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Gracious Home, considered by many as a true New York City classic, with its nearly 50-year reputation for superb service and extraordinary selection of merchandise, and renowned among the city's most distinctive home furnishings and hardware retailers, today was acquired by Americas Retail Flagship Fund LLC, in a timely transaction that "rescued" the company and its more than 250 employees from potential closure. The company under its prior ownership had filed for bankruptcy protection in August 2010, and will now emerge with new ownership and a fresh chapter in its storied history.

Americas Retail Flagship Fund LLC has combined more than 75 years of financial, real estate, retail and luxury and lifestyle home goods industry experience. It includes Joel Kier of the Kier Group, Frank J. Sciame, Jr. and John Randolph of Sciame Development, Inc., and Isidore Mayrock, former principal partner of Fortunoff, the home furnishings retailer his family founded in 1923 and sold in 2005.

"With more than 175,000 items from energy efficient light bulbs to fine European linens, and incredibly caring and knowledgeable employees, in the retail industry, there are very few companies with as revered a name as Gracious Home," noted Joel Kier, one of the three partners in Americas Retail Flagship Fund LLC. "We look forward to working with the Gracious Home team and using our resources, and financial, real estate and retailing acumen to further develop the company, and serve our customers by building on the heritage and culture of wonderful service and exceptional quality the original founders have brought to discerning New Yorkers since 1963."

"All of us at Gracious Home are highly motivated about our future and look forward to partnering with such experienced investors who understand and respect the Gracious Home values and customer-focused culture," said Jordan Smilowitz, President and COO, "and we greatly appreciate the patience and support of our employees, steadfast vendors and loyal customers as we grow our business with them."

About Gracious Home

Gracious Home is a New York classic. Through its retail stores located on the Upper East Side at Third Avenue and 70th Street, Upper West Side at Broadway and 67th Street and its Home Improvement Design Store and Showroom, located in Chelsea on 25th Street off of 6th Avenue, the Company is famous among New Yorkers for serving each of these distinct Manhattan neighborhoods and beyond, with its unique blend of incomparable hands-on customer service and high quality and extraordinary selection of home and hardware merchandise, all with an indeterminable effort to please and cater to its discerning customers. Gracious Home has a well-deserved reputation that extends beyond its New York stores, to its web-based business operating under http://www.gracioushome.com, where more than 50% of its customers live or work outside the New York City metropolitan region. With employees, whose tenure and experience is routinely in the decades, and an inventory of more than 175,000 items from thousands of loyal vendors from around the world, the Company is one of the few that can truly say and deliver on the promise ... "And if you can't find what you are looking for, please let us know; if it exists, we will help you find it!"

About Americas Retail Flagship Fund LLC

Americas Retail Flagship Fund LLC is a group of entrepreneurial private investors with decades of successful financial, real estate and retail industry experience, committed to growing and enhancing the performance of companies active in lifestyle driven industries, unique real estate properties and other branded consumer-oriented businesses. The investors include: Joel Kier, Chairman and CEO of the Kier Group, a private investment firm with significant restructuring expertise focused on consumer product and retail companies; Frank Sciame and John Randolph, Principals of Sciame Development Inc., the real estate development arm of one of New York's leading and respected construction companies, Sciame; and Isidore Mayrock, former principal partner of Fortunoff, the pioneering home furnishings retailer his family founded in 1923 and sold in 2005, a founding partner of the "new" Fortunoff outdoor furniture stores, and head of his family's principal investment and real estate office.

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SOURCE Americas Retail Flagship Fund LLC