Robb & Stucky glitters in Vegas
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, February 18, 2008
Las Vegas — If the shoppers coming through Robb & Stucky's first showroom here during the grand opening weekend are any indication of the store's reach, then leaders Clive Lubner and Fred Berk should be beaming.
Berk, president of the Fort Myers, Fla.-based upscale chain, saw everything from strollers to wheelchairs moving through the new 93,000-square-foot, two-level store.
The first two sales were to residents of California. On the first formal opening day, shoppers came from at least seven countries, including France, Belgium, Sweden and Italy.
"That's a good sign," said Berk, noting that the store was developed for international appeal and "it has certainly proved to be the case at this point.... We're very happy to be here and very pleased with the initial response."
The store is part of Town Square Las Vegas, a new 1.5 million-square-foot open-air shopping center on Las Vegas Boulevard South. The center also is home to EQ3's first Las Vegas store and a Design Within Reach unit.
Robb & Stucky's store features signature rooms and all the elaborately detailed lifestyle room settings that the Top 100 retailer is known for, as well as an 8,000-square-foot Robb & Stucky Patio store, a gift boutique, a custom mirror and frame shop and other specialty areas.
Key suppliers include Marge Carson, Henredon, Century, Maitland-Smith, Theodore Alexander and McCreary Modern. In bedding, a premium private-label line produced by E.S. Kluft includes a showcased mattress featuring all natural fibers and hand-stitching, which retails for $20,000 in king size.
Doug Correll, former sales manager for Robb & Stucky in Plano, Texas, is the Las Vegas store's general manager.
It's the fifth location the now 30-store chain has opened in less than 12 months. Two smaller stores opened last year in the Dallas-area communities of NorthPark and Southlake, and a Patio store debuted in Boca Raton, Fla. The retailer's first international location, a Design Studio in Costa Rica, opened a few weeks ago.
Alan Reinken, vice president of the western region for Robb & Stucky, wouldn't disclose its investment here or the projected sales except to say, "I think it will be one of our best stores.
"We have a fabulous design studio and design team," he said. "That's going to be a very big plus in this store doing well right off the bat."
Town Square is centrally located in Las Vegas and is near where major freeways merge, making it easy for the retailer to cover the market with one store, Reinken said.
"This has probably been almost four years in the making," he said. "It's a culmination of a desire to be here and finally finding the right location."
Berk called the store a "knockout." He said shoppers were enjoying all the distinctive items Robb & Stucky offers, including a $30,000 Charleston Forge cocktail table made from 200 million-year-old petrified wood. The accompanying accent tables can be picked up for a mere $7,000.
"I think that's what sets the tone here," he said. "It's not the same old, same old."
Reinkin said the retailer wasn't dissuaded by the challenging business climate.
"When we open a store like this, we absolutely create business," he said. He added that Las Vegas appears to be underserved at the high-end, with no other stores offering the amount of high-end product and the type of presentation as the new Robb & Stucky.
Berk said the opening attracted several real estate professionals, who told him they believe Las Vegas is in a temporary lull and that there actually will be a housing shortage come 2010.
"We're extremely excited about the store as well as being able to be in Las Vegas," Berk said. "We think the climate should be very good for our type of business. It's a great center."
Robb & Stucky had revenues in excess of $300 million last year.
