Hundreds of Vendors Looking for New Home as Massive Warrenton Venue Bought by Antiques Import Company

Cole’s Antique Show in Warrenton recently sold to Blue Ocean Traders, a Louisville, Kentucky-based antiques import company. The Fall antiques show at Cole’s starts this week, and it will be the last for the 250 or so vendors who call it home.

“As an antique brand, you really got to be in Round Top,” said Jason Mulvene, owner of Blue Ocean Traders. “We like it out there. We want to be part of the community. We want to invest in the community.”

Elwyn John “E.J.” Cole bought the property in 2004 and built his first indoor venue space. He expanded over the years and added an RV park. Cole passed away in 2020 at the age of 95. His son Jim Cole Sr. briefly took over the business. Jim Sr. died suddenly in 2021 at the age of 49. His daughter Brittany Cole has been running it ever since.

“We’re understaffed,” she said. “It’s just my husband and I, and we can’t keep up with doing it all. We have three small children who we want to spend time with as well. It was a very hard decision.”

A New Venture

Mulvene has some big plans for the property.

“For Phase 1, we’re looking to open up a full time wholesale and retail showroom and antique store,” Mulvene said. “That’s going to occupy the whole main building on the Cole’s property.”

Blue Ocean Traders has showrooms in Atlanta, Dallas, Las Vegas and High Point, North Carolina, in addition to their flagship showroom in Louisville. The company’s main business involves importing vintage and heirloomquality goods from around the world. Blue Ocean sells those goods to about 2,500 retail stores and designers around the country.

“We’re primarily wholesale,” Mulvane said. “The only retail we’re going to do is there in Round Top, because you kind of have to if you’re in the Round Top market. But we primarily service the retail interior design trade.”

For Phase 2, Mulvane said he wants to develop a design marketplace on some of the undeveloped parts of the property.

“We want to re-envision that as another show marketplace,” he said. “We’re looking to attract different kind of vendors associated with the design trade.

“We’re thinking about landscape supply people, something like that – not just traditional antique dealers,” he added. “Not that we’re against them, but they have a lot of places in Round Top. We’re thinking about developing this more as a designer marketplace. That’s Phase 2, and I don’t really have a timeline on that.“ Mulvane said he and his wife are familiar with the Round Top area through the antiques business. Mulvane said he sold goods at the Ex

•cess venue more than 20 years ago.

“It was business and personal, to be honest,” Mulvene said of the recent purchase. “My wife likes it out there. We live in Louisville, Kentucky, now. She grew up on a farm. She said, ‘Boy, wouldn’t it be nice, as we get close to retirement, if we had an antique showroom out there and did the show?’ I said, ‘Yeah, let’s start looking for land now. And when we get to that time, we’ll be ready for it.’ She thought that was a great idea. Lo and behold, this property comes up at auction and I blow the plan out of the water. It’s bigger than we needed.”

When he learned that the Cole’s property would be sold at auction, Mulvane said he saw an opportunity to grow his business.

The 22-acre property with more than 100,000 sq. ft. of indoor space reportedly sold for around $4.1 million. Schrader Real Estate and Auction Company of Indiana managed the sale. Schrader did not disclose the sale price. Mulvene neither confirmed nor denied the $4.1 million figure, but he said he was “very pleased” with the purchase price.

“That’s a lot of land under a roof, for what I thought we could buy it for,” Mulvene said. “It just seemed to work out that way.”

The massive 66,000 sq. ft. climate-controlled main building has booth space for about 250 vendors. Those vendors, many of whom have called Cole’s home for years, found out just before the Fall Show that this one would be the last.

“It’s bittersweet,” Brittany Cole said. “We were hoping Jason would continue the show. But I don’t hold anything against him. I believe Jason will do good things for the show and bring something new.”

What’s Next For The Vendors?

“This is a tremendous venue – the diversity and quality of the antiques,” said Charlotte Steiner, a retired schoolteacher from Michigan who sells antiques at Cole’s. “All the dealers here are very down to earth, approachable. They have reasonable prices. They’re honest antiques. There isn’t anything else like it.”

“Everyone here is like family,” said Emil Knodell of Fayetteville, who sells antiques and art at a booth in Cole’s. “It’s a massive network of social relationships. Many of these vendors are older dealers who’ve been in the business for years and years. They have massive knowledge about their products.”

Donald and Marian Hurta of Marshall have been selling antique wood furniture at Cole’s for the past 15 years.

“We’re very disappointed that it’s closing,” said Marian. “It’s a perfect place. It’s air conditioned and heated. You can store your stuff here between shows if you want to. Free parking.”

The Hurtas will move their booth to Renck Hall in the spring. But some vendors at Cole’s are getting out of the antiques business altogether.

“This’ll be our last show,” said Bob Corey of Florida.

Corey sells a variety of antiques ranging from light fixtures to old phonograph players to vintage firearms.

“There’s not another venue where you can leave your merchandise and that’s air conditioned,” Corey said. “I can’t pack this stuff up each show and bring it back. For a lot of dealers, it’s really devastated them. We do it for fun. I’d like to keep doing it for fun. But this is our last show.

Corey, like many of the dealers in Cole’s, is offering some deep discounts to liquidate his inventory.

“Whatever I don’t sell I have to take back with me to Florida,” he said.

David Singleton started selling antiques in Warrenton under a tent in a field 30 years ago. He’s been inside Cole’s for the past 10 years.

“I don’t like it at all,” he said. “It’s home to us. Once these dealers scatter about, you’ll never get this quality of a group together in a venue again.”

Singleton said he’s looking for a new venue for the next show.

“There’s one indoor venue we’re looking at,” he said. “But in all likelihood, we’ll go back to our roots – out in a field under a tent. At 82 years old, I don’t look forward to that. But we’ll do it. I’m not ready to quit yet.”

B.J. Pawlaczyk of Au Gres, Michigan, sells vintage outboard boat motors. He’s been at Cole’s since 2019.

“We love this place,” he said. “I’ve got about five venues that want me to come with the boat motors. It’s different than everyone else, and people buy them.”

Pawlaczyk said he’s known Jason Mulvene since he was a kid.

“His dad and I were antique dealers and real good friends,” Pawlaczyk said. “He’s a super guy. Even though I’ve got to move out, the right guy got it. He’s a good guy.”

Stop by and grab a piece of history before it’s all gone. The Fall Antiques Show at Cole’s runs through Oct. 19 in the main building at Oct. 26 for the outside vendors.

Mulvene said he plans to open the Blue Ocean Traders showroom by April of next year.