Piano Craft moves to new location off Republic Road

Despite a big “store closing” billboard near Piano Craft’s store location at 1675 E. Seminole St., the company isn’t shutting down its business: It’s moving.

Shelley Wilson-Murdaugh, who co-owns the company with her husband, Greg Murdaugh, confirmed this morning that Piano Craft hopes to be moved into its new location at 4240 S. Fremont Ave. around Jan. 31. Many company functions have already moved, she said, including warehouse operations.

Jim Hearn, Piano Craft executive vice president, said the company has been preparing for the shift for a few months by holding a liquidation sale.

“These doors are going to close,” Hearn said this morning. “And we have publicly proclaimed through all social media that Piano Craft is not going out of business. We are moving to a better location, and we do not want to have to move the current floor inventory, so it’s on sale to be liquidated.”

Piano Craft employs roughly six staffers, Hearn said, and that’s not expected to change with the move.

Hearn said Piano Craft had spent a “good chunk of money” on building out the new 5,000-square foot Fremont Avenue facility, declining to disclose specifics.

“We are very, very fortunate in that building is simply a more functional building. We have some wasted space where we are at,” Hearn said. “Like at this point, our logistics vehicles have to sit out all night, and they had been subject to some vandalism, so the new location actually has garage doors and just a phenomenal space for our workshop and things like that.”

Hearn added that the current location of Piano Craft “is kind of a block off the beaten path” relative to nearby Glenstone Avenue.

“The city has also shifted,” Hearn said. “We are finding a lot more of our client base out toward that Republic Road and Fremont area. We are right on Fremont, and you can see us from the cross street of Republic Road. So, we think we are actually going to have better exposure there. I think that is probably the main thing. Also, having a more functional facility there is also a good move.”

Hearn said Piano Craft’s business needed better space to accommodate the three main facets of its business: sales of pianos, ongoing customer service tasks like piano-cleaning and piano-tuning, and logistic service to help piano owners move their musical instruments when it comes time to move or downsize homes.

Showroom and workshop spaces at the new Piano Craft will be similar in size to the ones at the location on Seminole Street that the company plans to exit, Hearn said.

Hearn said he did not have an immediately accessible figure for Piano Craft’s 2025 revenues.

“I believe it was a tad bit less simply because of all the tariff baloney that came up,” he said, adding, “I just know that the company is very, very blessed – very, very stable.”

Hearn said he owned a piano store in Battlefield Mall from 1980-2000, before merging with Piano Craft. He counts Greg Murdaugh as a friend of some 45 years.

Hearn said that in his view, “Piano Craft is the only real piano store within almost a 200-mile radius. … We have techs that go all over southwest Missouri.”

Their mantra, he said, is “doing everything in excellence.”

“We do nothing, nothing, that we would ever have to look over our shoulder after do it,” Hearn said.