Excerpts from a Tupelo Furniture Market press release about its August celebration of 25 years:

TUPELO, Miss., June 26, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Everybody in real estate knows the old adage - location, location, location. But it seems only V.M. Cleveland understood that a relatively small strip of land resting on the far west side of Tupelo, Mississippi could ultimately become a hotbed of business trade opportunity for the furniture industry.

Flash forward a quarter of a century and many successful years of operation and one will find six interconnected, impressively sized buildings, housing close to two million square feet of open exhibit space and permanent showrooms. All sitting on what is now considered prime real estate in the proverbial perfect location.

According to Cleveland--who, not surprisingly, is also a very successful real estate developer--the furniture market is closely tied to real estate. So, as one might imagine, the last several years have been challenging for the industry. However, Cleveland says that early indications for this year's fall market, August 16-19, are very promising and that this bodes well for the industry.

"Our attendance numbers are up considerably compared to last spring and fall at this point before the show. Also, we have pretty much sold all of our showroom space and our open exhibit space is filling up fast. These are great indicators."

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Read the full press release here.