First Las Vegas market pushed back to July 25–29
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, October 10, 2004
Las Vegas — Developers of the World Market Center here have pushed back the dates of their first furniture market by one week and bumped up temporary space to nearly 1 million square feet.
According to WMC officials, the surprise moves are aimed at meeting overwhelming demand by suppliers who want to be part of the first show.
The showroom building has changed its first market dates to July 25–29 from the previous July 18–22 in order to secure about 650,000 square feet of space for temporary exhibits at the Las Vegas Convention Center, a few minutes drive from WMC.
That would increase the total exhibit space for the first market by 40% to 2.3 million square feet from the 1.64 million square feet planned earlier. WMC still plans to have about 345,000 square feet of temporary space on its site, in tents called the World Market Pavilions, along with the first-phase, 1.3 million-square-foot building of permanent showrooms.
WMC has a provision for additional conventional center space beyond the nearly 650,000 square feet if needed, said Shawn Samson, a WMC managing partner, although he declined to say how much more.
Samson said the WMC decided to move the dates in order to secure enough space, but added that a second benefit to the date change for suppliers here is the Assn. of Woodworking and Finishings Suppliers' Vegas show, to be held at the convention center on overlapping dates, July 27–30.
"This expansion is all thanks to the significant level of demand ... from the industry," he said. "Many of the people who expressed interest in phase two and three buildings want to be able to participate in our very first market. This is an attempt to accommodate those (tenants) as well as the additional backlog of demand for temporary space."
Samson denied the decision to reschedule was tied in any way to the competing, overlapping furniture markets that have cropped up since the World Market Center came on the scene.
"We don't make decisions on our markets based on other dates of other markets," he said.
Bentley International is planning its second International Furniture & Accessories Marketplace, set for July 19–21 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, and Louisville Expositions is planning its first Las Vegas Furniture Show at the Sands Convention Center on the same dates.
The new WMC dates also would avoid an overlap with the San Francisco summer 2005 market, scheduled for July 20–23.
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