City Furniture headed for Fort Myers, Naples
Will be first four Gulf Coast stores
Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, November 15, 2007
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — City Furniture has secured property in the southwest Florida cities of Fort Myers and Naples for what will be its first four Gulf Coast stores.
Keith Koenig, president of the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Top 100 chain, said the retailer paid Southwest Florida Investment Group $4.35 million for the Fort Myers, Fla., property in Alico Lakes Village at Interstate 75 and Alico Road.
It plans to build a 75,000-square-foot City Furniture Store and 40,000-square-foot Ashley Furniture HomeStore there side by side with separate entrances, but also a connector so consumers can move from store to store without going outside.
In Naples, City is leasing land to build a 54,000-square-foot City store and a 32,000-square-foot Ashley unit. They will be adjacent to a store of another Top 100 company, American Signature.
Koenig hopes to open all four stores at the same time with a big splash next August or September.
With another Ashley store opening in a former Modernage location in Fort Lauderdale this coming April, the retailer will have a total of 26 stores after the Gulf coast openings, including seven HomeStores.
Koenig said that City, like other Florida retailers, is experiencing a tough business environment tied to Florida’s housing woes.
“But we’re doing fine,” he said. “We’ve tightened our belt. In some way we’re a much better company for it.”
He added, “That also has given us the confidence not to slow down our store expansion plans. We’re confident in our business model and long-term success in Florida.”
Fort Lauderdale-based City is No. 29 on Furniture/Today’s Top 100 with estimated sales last year of $342.8 million at 21 stores.
Koenig said he’s also negotiating for four more HomeStores and another City location. The City store and one HomeStore will be ground-up projects and the other three Ashley stores are planned for existing retail locations.
City has said it eventually plans to have 14 HomeStores in south Florida.
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City Furniture headed to Fort Myers, Naples
Nov 18, 2007
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