City aiming to resume expansion this year
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, February 15, 2010
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. —
City Furniture is hoping to jump back into full expansion mode this year, beginning work on several large City and Ashley Furniture HomeStore projects.
The 26-store Top 100 company — operating in one of the economically hardest hit states — has begun to see an increase in sales this year, said President Keith Koenig.
“It's not cause for celebration,” he said about the 10% uptick so far this year, “but certainly we're encouraged. That's important because we have several existing new projects we want to get started on this year, and I've been waiting to see a bit of a turn in the marketplace.”
For starters, the Florida retailer wants to begin construction in the second quarter on a 94,000-square-foot City Furniture/Ashley Furniture HomeStore complex in Boca Raton. Koenig said he has been working on this project for eight years, but it has been held up by litigation unrelated to the retailer a couple of times. When it opens — hopefully by the first quarter of 2011 — it's expected to be a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified building under the Green Building Rating System.
Koenig said the company will invest more than $10 million in the complex, which will include a 62,000-square-foot City showroom and a 32,000-square-foot HomeStore. He wouldn't project sales, but said he expects it to be “one of our best locations.”
When it opens, the store will replace three smaller City stores in Boca Raton and nearby Lantana and Pompano, Fla.
City also hopes to break ground in the second or third quarter on a 54,000-square-foot City store in Cutler Bay in Miami-Dade County. When the building is completed some time in 2011, the company will convert the existing City location next door into a 33,000-square-foot Ashley Furniture HomeStore.
Koenig said he has three other new stores in the planning stages, but wouldn't provide details because the deals aren't finalized.
“We have a very interesting year in terms of investment in the future if the marketplace shows a bit of cooperation,” he said.
When these projects are completed, the company will still have about the same store count —26 — but the City stores will be larger and there will be 13 to 14 HomeStores vs. eight today.
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City Furniture aims to resume expansion in Florida
Jan 29, 2010
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