Nebraska Furniture Mart expands headquarters ahead of Dallas opening

Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, December 27, 2012

OMAHA, Neb. — Nebraska Furniture Mart has acquired an additional office building here for its corporate headquarters, whose staff will be expanded as the retailer prepares to open its big new store in Dallas in 2015, the Omaha World-Herald reports.

The Top 100 company has purchased a 44,000-square-foot building at 808 S. 74th Plaza in Omaha for $1.2 million and will spend $7.4 million on renovations, the newspaper said.

It will house about 175 administrative employees, about the same number NFM will hire over the next three years as it anticipates the May 2015 opening in The Colony, a north Dallas suburb, the company said.

NFM officials told Furniture/Today earlier that the 1.86 million-square-foot store and distribution center, part of a $1.5 billion retail and entertainment center development, will be "the largest home furnishings store in North America." They estimate it will attract more than 8 million visitors a year and will generate $600 million in sales annually, in home furnishings and other categories including appliances and electronics.

Bob Batt, the retailer's executive vice president, told the World-Herald that the headquarters expansion shows that even as the company is expanding in Texas, "The important thing is we are reinvesting in hometown Omaha."