When I was just a little boy, my mother, who was more of a seamstress and knitter, often bought her things from the JOANN Fabrics store in our small community.

It was about the mid-’60s, and we didn’t go out a lot, so I remember being puzzled to see another JOANN Fabrics store in another town a little further away. It was my first exposure to chains.

It was in northeastern Ohio, and JOANN Fabrics grew to 855 stores in 49 states, with an e-commerce business that helped secure its place as a category leader and ‘the one of the fastest growing players in arts and crafts. industry “, as the company says of itself.

And now, 75 years after its founding in Cleveland, JOANN plans to go public, perhaps also inspired by spurts of activity from suddenly socially estranged tinkerers and IPOs in a generally heated stock market.

JOANN announces its intention to go public

On February 16, JOANN – quite interesting, now its headquarters in a former DG (NYSE: GM) earthmoving equipment plant in the Cleveland-Akron suburb of Hudson – announced that it has filed a registration statement for an initial public offering proposal. If completed, JOANN intends to list its shares on Nasdaq under the symbol “JOAN”.

There is more. In the past, Joann’s shareholders took $ 5 million a year out of the company, and although that amount fell to $ 800,000, the company was credited to Fitch. Concern loans list, according to this room in Retail diving about the IPO.

But if the sale of shares does occur, this new public ownership could create a level of transparency that could reduce management fees – or at least a renewed imperative to generate profits (and maybe even pay a dividend).

Equally important, if the initial $ 100 million mentioned in the SEC file is really a placeholder for a $ 400 million IPO, as the Retail diving article said, citing IPO analysts at Renaissance capital, this could represent a significant investment in Joann’s business, possibly including more stores.

Millionacres net profit

Out of sheer longevity and agility JOANN as a company itself could be seen as a buy-stock, but there is more to this thread.

This IPO could also be good news for real estate investors. A further injection of cash could not only bring stability to the existing operation, but also lead to expansion, creating new businesses for property owners and managers, including real estate investment fund (FPI) of the variety of detail and other holders of commercial real estate.