Longtime Grand Rapids estate sale maven opens heirloom retail shop in Uptown

Grand Rapids businesswoman Marlene O’Donnell has been in the estate sale industry for over 35 years, conducting sales on location at her clients’ homes. O’Donnell, who owns Heirloom Estate Services with business partner Peggy Miller, will open Heirloom Estate Sales at 929 E. Fulton with another business partner, Kyle Maxim. O’Donnell has been hopping busy, helping Miller run the estate services business, which hosts some 50 estate sales a year, while spending the past four years helping Maxim shore up and renovate a dilapidated century-old building for a consignment shop on the main level and a 950-square-foot rental apartment upstairs.”Some places, like retirement homes, condominium complexes and others, don’t allow estate sales,” O’Donnell says. “In years past, we would get permission to bring that merchandise into people’s homes and coordinate it with another sale, but sometimes people didn’t want that or there wasn’t room. Having this building eliminates the need to do that.”When O’Donnell and Maxim started work on the building, it was pretty much an empty shell with no interior walls. They’ve acted as general contractors, hiring licensed electricians and plumbers, and doing a lot of the remodeling work themselves. Upstairs renovations include building a two-bedroom apartment with a new kitchen and bathroom, new windows and its own HVAC system. Downstairs renovations include an A.D.A.-compliant restroom, new exterior and a new roof. The store will be open periodically for specific estate sales. Interested persons can sign up on the Heirloom Estate Services’ web site to receive email notifications of sale dates. Source: Marlene O’Donnell, Heirloom Estate Services, Heirloom Estate SalesWriter: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor