Topping High Point?
WMC plan grows to 12M sq. ft.
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, April 3, 2005
Las Vegas — The fledgling World Market Center could be bigger than the High Point market in eight to 10 years.
That's the latest plan, anyway, from the developers of the home furnishings market here. While they avoid making direct comparisons to High Point, WMC officials say they are adding and expanding buildings planned for their 57-acre complex to push the project's size to 12 million square feet, up from the previous plan for 7.5 million square feet.
High Point stands at about 11.5 million square feet, according to the International Home Furnishings Market Authority.
WMC officials also say they aim to develop a diverse mix of home-related products and more international appeal than is currently offered at any U.S. home furnishings show.
"Overwhelming" support and demand are the key drivers for the latest expansion plan, said Shawn Samson, WMC co-managing partner.
To make room for the additional market buildings, the developers will move the planned mixed-used components (including a hotel, office space, retail and convention space) off the campus. They also will expand some showroom buildings in the previous plan.
The mixed-use segments will move onto a neighboring 61-acre parcel that's also being developed by WMC co-managing partners Samson, Jack Kashani and The Related Cos.
The updated plan calls for eight buildings, averaging 1.5 million square feet. All will have permanent space and some also will house temporary exhibits.
The schedule for the first five market buildings, totaling 7.5 million square feet, hasn't changed with completion still expected in 2010. The first building will open for the WMC's inaugural market July 25-29. One new building will open annually starting in early 2007 with the second, which will have 1.6 million square feet on 15 levels.
Buildings six through eight would follow at a pace of about one a year to complete the 12 million-square-foot build out.
With the changes, the WMC has gone from a $1 billion project to more than $2 billion.
While the WMC may be poised to wrest the title of World's Largest Furniture Market from High Point if the latest plan is pulled off, Samson contended the objective isn't to be bigger than any other market, but to become more diverse and international in flavor, to better appeal to today's buyers.
"We're not trying to duplicate or replicate any existing market in the U.S. by virtue of this expansion," he said. "Rather, we are trying to create a brand new mix of segments and products on a large scale. In order to do that, we've gone beyond the existing exhibitor base in the U.S. and are actively forming strategic alliances with international groups."
In February, the World Market Center announced that visitors to the market this July will get a taste of two large European textile and home decor shows — Heimtextil and Ambiente — in a 200,000-square foot temporary exhibit at the Las Vegas Convention Center called Interior Lifestyle USA. The WMC struck up an alliance with Messe Frankfurt Inc., the U.S. division of the Heimtextil and Ambiente organizer.
Samson said other international alliances will follow and that the WMC already is seeing interest from Interior Lifestyle USA exhibitors who want to open permanent showrooms.
He wouldn't name the companies interested in the permanent space or the other international organizations with whom the WMC is talking.
Samson wouldn't estimate the ratio of domestic to international exhibitors, or how much space would be devoted to furniture vs. other home furnishings segments. He did say that among the categories the market plans to include are decorative accessories, lighting, textiles, tabletop, gifts, and kitchen and bath.
The second and third buildings will have a greater emphasis on accessories than the first-phase building opening this year, which will dedicate two of its 10 floors to the segment.
"Because buildings Two and Three are 15-story buildings, we have an opportunity to add some other segments," he added. "But at a minimum, we will maintain the same number of furniture floors."
That would be at least six furniture floors, like in Building One, which also has two floors for decorative accessories and two for a design center. Because the future buildings will be taller, they're likely to have more furniture floors, he said.
What Samson referred to as a "co-location strategy" also is a factor in the expansion and diversification into non-furniture categories. He noted that the first market, for instance, will be held the same week as the big Assn. of Woodworking and Furnishings Suppliers show in Las Vegas, which has "created certain synergies that have never existed before," as furniture manufacturers become buyers and sellers at the same time, in the same city. The second WMC market in January 2006 will coincide with the Surfaces floor coverings trade show.
While the WMC may wind up bigger than High Point, the developers said the more important story will be the show's diverse product mix and its international appeal.
"It really comes down to this: We're not gunning for size," said WMC Chief Operating Officer Gerry Sawyer. "Our objective is to create a best-of-show environment. We're trying to create a venue that makes better, more efficient use of the buyers' time by creating a diversified international marketplace."
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