Alure Home Solutions shuts down after filing for bankruptcy

Nearly 80-year-old Alure Home Solutions, one of Long Island’s biggest names in home remodeling work, has abruptly closed its doors for good following bankruptcy filings last week.

Alure, founded in 1946 and headquartered in Commack, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Nov. 3 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, according to court documents. Its parent company, Renovo Home Partners of Dallas, Texas, reported liabilities of between $100 million and $500 million and total assets of $1 million to $10 million.

Renovo owns a network of home improvement businesses across multiple states, operating under names such as Dreamstyle Remodeling, Woodbridge Home Solutions and Reborn Cabinets, court filings show.

Nineteen business names are listed in Renovo’s court filing.

Calls to Alure’s office in Commack went unanswered on Tuesday, and the company’s website has been taken down. Company officials did not respond to requests for comment on the closure or bankruptcy proceedings.

In 2022, the company, which had been run by current Huntington Town Councilman Sal Ferro for over 30 years, according to his LinkedIn profile, was acquired by Renovo. Renovo, a newly formed company at the time, was backed by private equity firm Audax Private Equity, according to a news release from Alure.

The company had 112 employees on Long Island, according to estimates from analytics firm Dun & Bradstreet.

Matthew B. Harvey, a Wilmington, Delaware-based attorney representing the firm in its Chapter 7 cases, did not respond to Newsday inquiries about the bankruptcy or if impacted customers would receive refunds.

Long Island bankruptcy experts said that while more financial information is yet to come in the proceedings, initial readings of court filings suggest that customers who paid deposits or have unfinished work on their homes may not be made financially whole.

"I’ll say that what’s been filed here is not a good sign," said bankruptcy and restructuring lawyer Patrick Collins, a partner at Farrell Fritz in Uniondale.

Unlike Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, where the goal is to reorganize debts in an attempt to keep operating, Chapter 7 procedures are about liquidating a business’ assets and closing for good, Collins said.

In bankruptcy cases like these, he said, it’s typical for lenders to be classified as secured creditors, who usually get priority when it comes to recouping funds. After that, customers or impacted employees — often referred to as priority unsecured creditors — may be entitled to any remaining funds, though it’s less likely there will be many, if any, funds left over.

"It’s more likely than not that [customers] will not get a full recovery," Collins said.

In addition to the bankruptcy filing, a class-action lawsuit on behalf of impacted employees of Renovo was also filed in court.

The suit seeks damages in the form of 60 days' of wages for employees, alleging violations of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which requires employers with more than 100 workers to notify the government and employees 60 days in advance of a plant closure or mass layoff.