Mall space keeps City on move
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, April 10, 2005
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. — City Furniture has leased its first shopping mall location, fueling the Florida retailer's most aggressive expansion year ever.
The Top 100 company sealed the deal on a 140,000-square-foot space — a former Lord & Taylor department store — in the Mall at Wellington Green in fast-growing Wellington, Fla.
City will open a 70,000-square-foot City Furniture store on the first level and a 35,000-square-foot Ashley Furniture HomeStore on the second level, said Keith Koenig, president of the 16-store Florida chain. The stores are expected to open in August or September.
City is talking to other home furnishings retailers interested in leasing out the rest of the upper-level space, but Koenig wouldn't identify the prospects yet.
"It's going to be a unique and wonderful spot," he said. "It's a beautiful mall — really first rate — and it's the best anchor location in the mall. We know it's going to be a fabulous traffic location, and we expect it will be one of our best locations overall."
City recently flew its store design and sales management teams to Tampa, Fla., to see the just-opened Robb & Stucky mall location, also converted from a former Lord & Taylor space in the upscale International Plaza. The City group met with Robb & Stucky management, toured the showroom and learned the store was doing a brisk business.
"We were blown away by the traffic," Koenig said. "I can't imagine what November and December are going to be like."
He said the location represents an investment of "several million dollars," adding that while it's expensive, the Wellington area "is very, very hot" with the development of new houses, apartments and condominiums.
"The bad news is we'll probably cannibalize some of our West Palm Beach business, but the net gain is hopefully going to be positive," he said.
City's sales-per-square-foot target for Wellington is $500 or more, which would put annual sales for the two stores at more than $52 million.
For the year, City is aiming for a 20% sales increase. That projected gain is fueled partly by the aggressive expansion plans this year, although most of the seven new stores won't open until the second half.
Until now, City has never opened more than two stores a year.
In February, the retailer opened its second Ashley Furniture HomeStore in the west Miami suburb of Kendall. Last month, its third Ashley store — a 33,000-square-foot unit — opened in West Palm Beach on Okeechobee Boulevard, a few doors down from competitors Havertys and Rooms To Go.
A fourth Ashley store will open in the Weston-Davie, Fla., area near Fort Lauderdale in June, followed by the Wellington Ashley and City stores.
Then, in November, City will move further north with a 64,000-square-foot City and an attached 34,000-square-foot Ashley store in the Stuart/Jensen Beach area, about 90 miles north of Fort Lauderdale.
The new City stores, including the mall unit, will feature a new interiors package with updated lighting and other fixtures, fresh graphics and lighter finishes on the walls, floors and ceilings.
"We're working very hard to try to create a slightly more upscale image that's attractive and flexible and connects with our customer," Koenig store.
City opened its first Ashley store in Sunrise, Fla., in September, in the midst of an overactive hurricane season in Florida.
The store shut down for the storms, but since then has been successful and is on track to do more than $20 million this year, Koenig said.
"We're real happy with the store format and, thankfully, it hasn't cannibalized our existing City furniture business," he said.
The company plans to open a total of 13 to 14 Ashley stores through 2007 or 2008.
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