Page 25 - Lighting Magazine - August 2013

Retail Spotlight

A TEXAN

TRAILBLAZER

From selling refurbished ceiling fans & lighting fxtures at

local fea markets to establishing a successful lighting showroom,

Lee Jordans career has been unconventional.

PHOTOGRAPHY AND STORY BY LINDA LONGO

ome lighting showroom owners are born 4,000-sq.-f. warehouse where hed fx/assemble
into the business, taking over the reins the fans and fxtures as well as store them. Along
from the previous generation. Others the way, he teamed up with a friend who imported
blaze their own trail. Lee Jordan of goods, which led to a greater variety of lighting
SFort Worth Lighting is one of the later. fxtures in his inventory. As business and new
Take a tour through the well-merchandised 9,000 construction boomed in the Fort Worth area,
square feet of showroom space and its hard to the enterprising Jordan realized that there wasn t
believe that Jordans introduction to lighting sales a sizable lighting store close by. He was confdent
goes back to age 15, when he helped out at his fam- that his regular customers at the fea market would
ilys fea market business and started refurbishing follow him to a destination store and decided to
ceiling fans and lighting fxtures on his own. An take the plunge.
arrangement with nearby manufacturer Encon,
where hed buy pallets of broken ceiling fans, led GettinG Started
to a lucrative fea market business complete with a Ten years ago, on a drive down an undeveloped
loyal following. Jordan would also buy broken light- section along a major freeway on the outskirts of
ing fxtures from other well-known manufacturers Fort Worth, he saw his opportunity. There stood an
and fx them up for re-sale. empty lot that wasn t technically on the freeway,
Over the next seven years, Jordans fea mar- but accessed via a winding side street. Neverthe-
ket business grew so much that soon he had a less, the site was level to the highly trafcked

august 2013 | enLIGHTenment Magazine 23