Dunk & Bright closes its 99-year corner on South Salina Street

By Charles Shack, Senior Reporter

The corner of South Salina Street and Brighton Avenue has carried the same name on its sign for 99 years. That run is ending. Joe Bright, the fourth generation of his family to lead Dunk & Bright Furniture, told customers Friday that the Syracuse store at 2648 S. Salina St. will close, with operations consolidating to the company’s showroom at the former Great Northern Mall in Clay.

The closing announcement landed on the company’s Facebook page on April 24 and spread through local television by Saturday morning. By Sunday night, the South Side was processing the loss of one of its longest-running anchor businesses, just one calendar year shy of its centennial.

Timeline of Dunk and Bright Furniture from 1927 to 2026 — Four generations of the Bright family have run the South Salina Street store since 1927. Graphic by CNY Signal.

What Joe Bright said

“This is a strategic decision that allows us to better serve our customers by consolidating our resources and inventory,” Bright said in the company’s statement. He framed the move as logistics, not retreat: “By moving our full focus to our Clay location, we are streamlining our delivery logistics and centralizing our team to provide a more efficient, high-quality experience for every person who shops with us.”

Bright also pulled back to the longer arc. “Our family has been in the furniture business for generations, and our commitment to Central New York has never been stronger,” he said. “Closing the Syracuse store is about the future. We are evolving to make sure we’re here for our customers for another hundred years.”

The business is not closing. Customer orders, warranties and service tickets, Bright said, “are fully secure and will continue to be managed seamlessly by our team in Clay.” A closing sale at the Syracuse store will run for a limited time, and the property and buildings will be listed for sale. Staff at the Syracuse store will transfer to the Clay location, according to the company. Dunk & Bright employed 53 workers across all of its New York operations as of 2025, per PitchBook records.

The Bright family, the Salina address, and the South Side

Dunk & Bright opened in 1927 in the Brighton neighborhood, founded by William Bright Sr., a furniture salesman from Bridgeport, Connecticut, and William Dunk Sr., an English immigrant born in Kent who had worked his way up to production manager at the H.H. Franklin car company in Syracuse. Company history says the two met on the sales floor of Brown, Curtis & Brown downtown. Dunk financed the start, and Bright later bought him out for $5,000.

The company stayed in family hands after the founder’s death in 1939, when brother-in-law John Monahan took over. Pat Bright Sr., the founder’s son, became president in 1952. His son Jim Bright bought the business in 1993 after a career in Washington and New York. Joe Bright, Jim’s son, took over in January 2020. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and worked in pricing and business intelligence at Danaher Corporation before returning to the family company. The Home Furnishings Association named him its Emerging Star of 2019.

South Salina Street Historic District in Syracuse — The South Salina Street Historic District. Photo: Crazyale via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

The store grew with the family. A 12,000 square foot addition went up in 1991 that pushed the building across the entire South Salina Street and Brighton Avenue corner. A 13,000 square foot addition followed in 1998, a new facade and parking lot expansion came in 2002, and a 25,000 square foot addition went up in 2006. That last project also gave rise to the South Side Innovation Center, the small business incubator run by Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management. The center sits in a separate 13,000 square foot building across the parking lot from the showroom. Dunk & Bright charged the center modest rent, and the SU center now houses about 25 small businesses in transition. The center received $1 million in federal funding in 2024 to upgrade its facilities.

Joe Bright has spent recent years connecting the company to the neighborhood through the Southside TNT planning group, where he has attended monthly meetings. The Stand, the South Side’s nonprofit newspaper, profiled the family generations under the title “Joe Bright comes home.”

Key numbers behind Dunk and Bright closing — Key numbers behind the closure. Graphic by CNY Signal.

Why now

The Clay store opened in spring 2022 in the old Macy’s anchor at Great Northern Mall, a 90,000 square foot showroom. That was the bridge to a third act, and the timing has held up. Great Northern Mall closed to the public on November 20, 2022 (Macy’s itself had pulled out of the property in 2017), and developer Hart Lyman Companies of DeWitt is reshaping the 895,000 square foot site into a mixed-use lifestyle center that managing partner Guy Hart has described as including apartments, a hotel, a movie theater and a planned Upstate Medical University campus with an emergency room. Hart Lyman hired Waterloo-based Sessler Wrecking on a $2.5 million contract to take the mall down. Demolition began in February 2026 and is expected to clear the site within roughly two months.

Not every building comes down. The shells that survive the demolition include the former Dick’s Sporting Goods, the old Sears, Extra Space Storage and the existing Dunk & Bright showroom. According to a Hart Lyman plan reported by LocalSYR, Dunk & Bright is set to move across the parking lot from the former Macy’s anchor it occupies today into the former Dick’s Sporting Goods. The current Dunk & Bright structure is then slated for demolition. The company has not yet publicly confirmed an exact handover date.

The company is also expanding outside Onondaga County. Dunk & Bright cut the ribbon at 5:30 p.m. on April 9 at a 72,000 square foot showroom inside the former Burlington Coat Factory at South Town Plaza in Henrietta, off Jefferson Road in suburban Rochester. Doors opened to the public April 10. According to Rochester Business Journal property records, the company purchased the Burlington portion of the plaza and the triangular South Town Plaza pylon sign through a vehicle called Henrietta 3333 DB LLC for $2.7 million; the deal closed October 31, 2025, after a letter of intent first surfaced in December 2023. The Rochester opening brought 28 local hires. Combined, Dunk & Bright now operates two large showrooms and a million-cubic-foot distribution center in Liverpool.

What the Dunk and Bright closure means for customers, the neighborhood and the company — What the closure means for customers, the neighborhood and the company. Graphic by CNY Signal.

What the South Side loses

The corner at 2648 S. Salina has been a landmark for South Side residents for almost a century, surrounded by single and two-family homes in a neighborhood the city has long flagged as housing-cost burdened. About 45 percent of households in Syracuse spend at least 30 percent of their income on housing, and the city’s poverty rate sits at 28.78 percent as of 2026 city data. Median household income in the city is $47,819, and in the South Valley section of the South Side it is $47,120, according to recent Census Bureau pulls. Big employers and big footprints on the South Side are not common. Dunk & Bright was both.

Buildings at 1818 and 1804 South Salina Street, Syracuse — Buildings at 1818 and 1804 South Salina Street, part of the historic district that runs through the Brighton neighborhood. The 1818 South Salina building, Ashley Arms, was preserved as 13 affordable apartments by nonprofit Housing Visions. Photo: Lvklock via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

The corridor is already being studied. The City of Syracuse, working with the Greater Syracuse Land Bank, is developing a Brownfield Opportunity Area plan covering South Salina and East Adams that will inventory vacant and contaminated parcels and set a redevelopment strategy. By the end of summer, the front doors at 2648 S. Salina are scheduled to close for good, and the property will land squarely in that planning area as one of the largest privately listed parcels on the corridor.

The buildings will go on the market. The corner sign will come down. What replaces it on a city street that the Land Bank already counts among the priority redevelopment corridors is a question that lands on the next round of city planners and private developers.

Key facts at a glance

Store closing: Dunk & Bright Furniture, 2648 S. Salina St., Syracuse
Years on the corner: 99 (since 1927)
Founders: William Bright Sr. and William Dunk Sr.
Current owner: Joe Bright, fourth generation, Cornell graduate, former Danaher pricing manager
Joe Bright took over the business in January 2020; named HFA Emerging Star 2019
Jim Bright purchased the company from his father Pat Bright Sr. in 1993
Pat Bright Sr. became president in 1952
John Monahan led the company from 1939 to 1952
Original location: corner of South Salina Street and Brighton Avenue
Major expansion in 1991 covered the entire corner with a 12,000 sq ft addition
Additional 13,000 sq ft addition in 1998
Facade and parking lot expansion in 2002
25,000 sq ft addition in 2006
South Side Innovation Center, run by SU’s Whitman School, established 2006 in a separate 13,000 sq ft building on Dunk & Bright property
SSIC received $1 million federal grant in 2024 for facility upgrades
Clay store opened spring 2022 at former Macy’s at Great Northern Mall, 90,000 sq ft
Macy’s exited the Great Northern Mall property in 2017
Great Northern Mall closed to the public November 20, 2022
Demolition of most of Great Northern Mall began February 2026; Sessler Wrecking, $2.5 million contract
Hart Lyman Companies plan: lifestyle center with apartments, hotel, movie theater and Upstate Medical University campus including an emergency room
Dunk & Bright is set to move within the Clay site from former Macy’s to former Dick’s Sporting Goods; the current Dunk & Bright (former Macy’s) is slated for demolition
Dunk & Bright’s Henrietta store opened April 10, 2026, in former Burlington Coat Factory at South Town Plaza, 72,000 sq ft
Henrietta purchase: $2.7 million for the Burlington portion plus the South Town Plaza pylon sign, closed October 31, 2025, via Henrietta 3333 DB LLC
28 local hires for the Rochester opening
Distribution center in Liverpool: 1 million cubic feet
Total Dunk & Bright employees in 2025: 53 (PitchBook)
Closing sale at Syracuse store will run for a limited time
Syracuse property and buildings will be listed for sale
Closing announced on Facebook April 24, 2026
City of Syracuse and Land Bank are drafting a Brownfield Opportunity Area plan covering South Salina and East Adams
City of Syracuse median household income: $47,819; poverty rate 28.78 percent
South Valley neighborhood median household income: $47,120