Morris to open Dayton lifestyle furniture mall
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, July 23, 2007
Dayton, Ohio — Morris Furniture has begun site work on a 102,000-square-foot lifestyle furniture shopping mall here, a new format designed by Grid2.
The Home Center, at Interstates 70 and 75 in northern Dayton, features multiple store entryways for access to key product categories, and an interior with mall-like circulation that adjoins the specialty areas.
The design highlights the retailer's top-performing categories with facades for My Room (youth furniture), The Home Theater Store, The Sleep Shop and The Leather Center — each about 5,000 square feet — as well as a 35,000-square-foot Ashley Furniture HomeStore and a roughly 50,000-square-foot umbrella store, Morris Home Furnishings.
It represents an investment of more than $10 million and is projected to do $25 million to $30 million in annual sales, said Larry Klaben, president and CEO of the 10-store, Fairborn, Ohio-based Top 100 company.
That would make it Morris' highest-volume location and help push the retailer's total furniture, bedding and accessory sales past the $100 million mark in 2008, when it is expected to open in the second or third quarter.
"Grid2 has taken the concept that we have been developing for the past 10 years to a whole new level by producing our prototype design for 2010 and beyond," Klaben said. "The Home Center is a lifestyle furnishings mall and a whole new shopping experience that sets our company apart from the competition."
The Home Center is part of a "two-tier" expansion strategy for Morris, he said. Morris opened its seventh Ashley Furniture HomeStore last week, its second in the Columbus, Ohio, market, and plans a total of 12 to 15 in its licensed areas in Ohio by the end of next year.
The other tier, The Home Center, will be fine-tuned in Dayton before Morris takes it to other Midwest markets. The next is planned for Columbus, but Klaben couldn't be specific on the timing, saying the company will move forward "when the ideal parcel of land becomes available."
The anchor tenants for Home Centers will be Morris Home Furnishings and Ashley Furniture HomeStores, but the other specialty shop entryways and facades could change to include categories such as area rugs, home accents, spas and billiards, operated by Morris or other tenants.
"Capturing the spirit of a community streetscape, the new store targets the next generation of consumers accustomed to shopping in a town center format, now seen in suburbs across the country," the company said in a release.
About two-and-a-half years ago, the retailer began branding and merchandising Morris Home Furnishings to make it like several specialty stores in one showroom, with areas such as its Design Center, Leather Center, Sleep Shop, Home Theater and the Comfort Zone for reclining furniture.
The Home Center expands on that idea by giving consumer easy access to most of these areas of interest from the street, or immediately upon entering into the center.
"Our designers turned Larry's approach of 'one store, 10 great showrooms' into a 00,000-square-foot total shopping experience that is both comprehensive and easy to access," said Grid2 President Martin Roberts. "You have to make it easy for today's time-starved consumers."
Klaben said that each shop will have an advertising campaign. He said the specialty shops should drive consumers to the center, some shopping one category and others shopping more than one.
"Why do stores locate on furniture strips or rows? Because when people are out shopping, the go to a couple of different places at one time," said Klaben. "It's why stores cluster. They compete, but they also help each other."
Klaben said the new center largely will be merchandised through its existing sources, including Flexsteel, Rowe, Craftmaster, Broyhill, Albany, Corinthian, Berkline, La-Z-Boy and Lane in upholstery; Natuzzi and Leather Italia in leather upholstery; and Sealy in the Sealy-only sleep shop.
Key case goods suppliers, in addition to Ashley, include Stanley, Kincaid, A-America, Legacy Classic, Holland House, Powell, Broyhill, Lane, Samuel Lawrence and Thornwood.
With the Home Theater Store, Klaben said Morris is creating "the home theater store of the future," offering everything from promotional systems to $200,000 cutting-edge electronics and furniture packages.
Morris, which will celebrate its 60th anniversary in October, was ranked No. 91 on Furniture/Today's Top 100, with estimated furniture, bedding and accessory sales last year of $72.3 million at nine stores, up 12.6% from the year before.
