NEWBURYPORT — Jacalyn Bennett isn't going anywhere, and neither is her company.
Bennett & Co., the global lingerie company with four buildings housing about 30 employees and warehouse space along Water Street, will call downtown Newburyport home for some time to come.
"We have no intention of moving," said Jacalyn Bennett, the company's founder and president, squashing rumors that the longtime Newburyport lingerie and nightwear production company was packing up and moving on. "Nothing is really going on."
As proof that the company is sticking around, Bennett is reopening her retail store on Water Street after a six-year hiatus. The store, at the Stuart Building at 38 Water St., will sell lingerie, nightwear and antique furniture and other collectibles that Bennett has collected from around the world.
The store opened at 10 a.m Saturday for a preview opening. It will continue to open by appointment from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and it will open formally during the week of April 5, Bennett said.
Bennett, a West Newbury resident, owns four buildings along Water Street where for 28 years she has designed garments for many top retailers, including Victoria's Secret, Frederick's of Hollywood, Lane Bryant and many other companies. She also owns four factories in Asia and ships her products to points around the globe.
For the past six years, the Stuart Building has served as a showroom for displaying products to her customers. But recently, Bennett said friends and charitable organizations she works with have continually asked why she doesn't reopen the retail shop.
"We closed because frankly we didn't have the time to run it," Bennett said.
The store, a small space that is wood-floored and lined with windows, will feature lingerie and nightwear from Bennett's collection.
"It will be my stuff," Bennett said.
In addition to clothing, the store will sell one-of-a-kind furniture Bennett has collected during decades of world travel. In the store already are a large, intricately hand-carved armoire from Indonesia, two small hand-carved tables from India and a Sri Lankan conversational chair made in the 1800s, among many other pieces.
Bennett said she is looking to sell some of that furniture as a way to downsize her considerable collection.
"These are beautiful, beautiful things," she said.
In March last year, Bennett's four buildings on Water Street went on the market for $6.25 million. A Boston real estate agent said Stephen Karp, the billionaire developer who owns much of the property around Bennett, was in talks to buy those buildings.
But Bennett said last week she isn't planning on moving, and she made that clear during an hourlong tour of one of her buildings, where designers were busy developing new lines of lingerie and nightwear, a logistics manager was tracking dozens of shipments worldwide and others were laying out new samples of work for final approval.
Throughout the building were racks full of samples, corsets and panties laid out on measuring tables to ensure correct measurements and paperwork detailing the specs for the custom-made clothing.
At one sizing table, a designer who works on the Victoria's Secret line explained how she was transforming a certain teddy, a long-running favorite in the catalog, into a fresh and flirty new design.
In the words of Brenda Marchi, the chief operating officer, the place is "humming."
"As you can see, we aren't going anywhere," Bennett said.
Jacalyn Bennett
Hometown: West Newbury
Office: 45 Water St.
Retail store: 38 Water St.
r More than 30 years in lingerie and nightwear business.
r More than 30 employees in Newburyport.
r 2,000 employees worldwide.
r Owns production factories in China and Sri Lanka.
r Designs lingerie for Victoria's Secret, Frederick's of Hollywood and many others.
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