Smith Brothers of Berne gain abatements

Smith Brothers of Berne, a leading furniture maker in Indiana, is the beneficiary of two tax abatements from the Fort Wayne City Council, granted on a 6-3 vote.

The Berne firm got a $ 1.2 million 10- year abatement and the company that’s renovating the building for Smith Brothers received a $3.4 million 10-year abatement when the city council met on May 10.

The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, which reported on several abatements in its May 12 edition, said Steve Lehman, part-owner and president of Smith Brothers, stated that the COVID pandemic that kept people at home for months led them to buy more furniture.

Lehman said his company usually has a backlog of around 8,000 items to be made, but that has grown to 46,000 items, reported the Fort Wayne paper.