Son Follows, Where Father Leaves Off -- Crisis In First Business Leads To Blossoming Of New Office-Interiors Firm

The office furniture business has changed dramatically since Steve Fleischmann, as a child, regularly dusted the furniture in his dad's showroom more than 25 years ago.

No longer do most office furniture companies keep big inventories on display in multilevel retail showrooms. Fleischmann's "showroom" is one catalog-packed room in a 1,600-square-foot office in The Tower Building at Seventh Avenue and Olive Way.

Fleischmann's father, Stanley, had 65 employees at his three-floor American Office Interiors (AOI) store at Second Avenue and Pine Street, which was founded in 1948 and closed in 1985. Son Steve has six employees and expects to do nearly the same volume this year as AOI did at its zenith.

Customers used to come to the store and pick out furniture on the spot; Fleischmann now often goes to the customer armed only with ideas and catalogs.

"My father was the dean of the office furniture industry in Seattle," said Fleischmann. "I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing if he hadn't provided a platform for me to grow from."

Sitting in his lakefront home in Leschi, Steve, 35, turns to his father for ratification of his last statement. Stanley, 75, nods agreement but adds this caveat:

"The business today is entirely different," said Stanley Fleischmann. "The way offices are planned in advance means you don't need the kind of showroom I had.

"Steve's success is his own success. It isn't mine," said the elder Fleischmann.

Steve Fleischmann started his own company, Steven Fleischmann Office Interiors, a year ago. He worked for his father until 1985, and for other companies in the industry between then and last year.

A disastrous embezzlement at AOI in 1985 had the effect of pushing Steve out from the shadow of his father's business.

In 1985, the Fleischmanns discovered that their bookkeeper, who was unrelated to the family, had been embezzling from the company to the tune of $500,000. The embezzler was eventually caught and put in jail, but the money, which had been gambled away, was never recovered.

AOI also never recovered. Stanley Fleischmann liquidated his company to pay creditors. The company laid off its 65 employees and closed its doors immediately after the embezzlement was discovered.

Steve Fleischmann feels like a phoenix that has risen from the ashes of that disaster.

His company did $1.5 million in sales last year, and he expects to more than double that figure this year, despite a recession that has companies pinching pennies and putting off major expenditures. Steve Fleischmann feels his company has benefited from the example of newly frugal corporations. In Seattle in the mid- and latter-1980s, companies moved from one downtown high-rise to another. Today, said Fleischmann, companies are choosing to stay where they are and remodel to accommodate space needs.

."The manufacturers of office furniture are suffering," said Fleischmann. "But there's room for someone like me, who can contribute expertise to helping a company solve its problems."