Gallery Furniture reopening draws crowd

Houston retailer honors firefighters

Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, July 8, 2009

A crowd of consumers gathers inside Gallery Furniture on the day the store reopened for the singing on the national anthem — a daily event.

HOUSTON — Thousands of firefighters and then crowds of consumers showed up this past weekend for the grand reopening of Gallery Furniture's main store, less than 45 days after a fire destroyed the adjacent 70,000-square-foot warehouse and damaged the showroom.

The Top 100 company served free hamburgers and drinks to consumers, who in return opened their wallets for furniture purchases. Owner Jim McIngvale estimated the store did about $1 million in sales Saturday.

Jim McIngvale

"I've been to a lot of hog callings and quite a few country fairs, but I ain't ever been to nothing like this," McIngvale said of the opening-day crowd. He estimated 4,000 to 5,000 people came through.

"It really exceeded our expectations," he said. "For all those who say people won't buy furniture during this recession, depression or whatever you want to call it, I say you give them a reason and they'll come and buy."

A sculpture in front of Gallery Furniture was created from the deformed steel found among the wreckage of the retailer’s warehouse fire.

Gallery opened Friday to firefighters for an appreciation party that drew some 3,000 people.

On Saturday, traffic was backing up on the freeway service road in front of the store hours before the official opening, so Gallery decided to open the doors early, McIngvale said.

Outside near the store's entrance, visitors could see part of what was left of Gallery's destroyed warehouse, a sculpture that artist Bob Mosier created from the deformed steel found in the wreckage. It's painted red, and like Gallery's new logo, features the number 31 in a bow to the 31 fire stations that responded to the May 21 blaze.

McIngvale said if it weren't for the firefighters, Gallery would be out of business. "They're not supposed to really risk their lives to save property, but they did," he said.

About 40,000 square feet of the 100,000-square-foot store has been reopened. The final two phases of the interior should be completed by Labor Day, and a new warehouse - in the same spot as the destroyed building - is scheduled to be up and running by Thanksgiving.

McIngvale has estimated that the cost to rebuild everything would run $20 million to $30 million.

The Mango Grove, a new “decompression” area for consumers in the Gallery Furniture showroom, features mango wood tables and water fountains.

The exterior of the store was redone in stucco and a new walkway from the parking lot was landscaped with palm trees.

Inside, consumers saw a remodeled store with new features including a premium Tempur-Pedic bedding gallery, and a decompression or "tide pool" area that the retailer is calling the Mango Grove. Consumers can sit there, gather their thoughts and "talk about whatever they want to talk about," said Hamilton Masters, a Gallery spokesman.

The area includes mango wood tables, two water fountains and a live mango tree that Masters is hoping will thrive under the skylight. It also features a larger variety of uncaged tropical birds than Gallery previously kept in another part of the store - macaws, cockatoos and a toucan.

A Tempur-Pedic bedding gallery is among the new features of the redesigned Gallery Furniture space.

Gallery Furniture also renovated the store exterior, parking lots and walkways in time to open 44 days after the warehouse fire.