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United Art and Education Inc., 4413 Airport Expressway, operates seven retail stores in Ohio and Indiana, including one in Fort Wayne. The privately held company also sells its products nationwide through its catalog and Web site.

Mike Gugel, United Art’s president, said Monday that while the company doesn’t release its financial results, its revenue has nearly doubled in the past five years.

“We have grown steadily over the last few years by adding stores and expanding our catalog,” he said. “This (expansion project) is overdue.”

United Art employs about 180 companywide. Of those, about 45 are located in Fort Wayne. And about one-third of those work in the retail store at 4111 N. Clinton St. The company also operates stores in Indianapolis, Mishawaka, Goshen and in the suburbs of Dayton and Columbus, Ohio.

The company bought a five-acre field adjoining its headquarters for construction of the warehouse addition. The existing building is 24,000 square feet. The unfinished plans call for expansion to more than 53,000 square feet. Groundbreaking will probably happen in early spring, Gugel said. Master Group is the project construction manager.

The project is estimated at $1.95 million, including additional information technology and distribution equipment.

Unlike some other industries, art and education supplies enjoy a fairly stable market that keeps growing with the growing numbers of school-age children, Gugel said.

“With the emphasis on education that our company has, we don’t have the big peaks and valleys when the economy changes,” he said.

The company’s online art supplies effort will expand to include more of the education-related products available in the stores, another reason the company needs to expand its warehouse, Gugel said.

United Art, which opened its two Ohio stores in 2001, added the Mishawaka and Goshen stores in spring of 2002 with the acquisition of Mishawaka-based Creative Teaching.

Gugel hopes the company will open one store or more each year in the near future. He is looking at cities with populations greater than 300,000 within 150 miles of Fort Wayne. Possible destinations include Detroit and Chicago, he said.

The additional jobs already planned include positions in marketing, information technology, computing and the warehouse. The jobs will be added slowly over the next five years, with most coming toward the end of that period, Gugel said.

The Fort Wayne-Allen County Economic Development Alliance worked with United Art to secure the investment. The city of Fort Wayne has pledged a $40,000 grant toward the project. The Fort Wayne City Council might consider a tax abatement as well, according to the alliance.

“United Art and Education represents the very best of the business spirit in Fort Wayne, backed by a solid record of customer-driven growth and a positive outlook for the future,” Mayor Graham Richard said in a prepared statement distributed Friday.

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