Clint Engel
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — City Furniture has completed more than $13 million in renovations on three stores


and expanded one of the units in a move expected to provide a sales boost for the Top 100 company.

Last week, City reopened last week its West Palm Beach store, which was the company’s second-best performing unit before Hurricane Wilma severely damaged the showroom and knocked it out of business 11 months ago.

The retailer also renovated and expanded its Hialeah, Fla., store and renovated its flagship Tamarac, Fla., store, its highest-volume unit.

The Hialeah store grew to 57,000 square feet from 40,000 square feet. All three stores are in a new-generation format with a new lighter color scheme; updated track lighting, fixtures and flooring, including more hard surfaces; and a more open floor plan.

All three stores include City’s Dianne Davant Academy of Design interior design services and the new KC Café, where consumers can enjoy free raspberry iced tea and cookies and buy Seattle’s Best gourmet coffees.

The café’s name is a memorial to the late Kevin Charles Koenig, Keith’s brother and a City founder and executive.

While City, like most Florida retailers, has experienced slowing business in recent months, Koenig said he’s looking for same-store sales increases of better than 10% starting next year from the updated stores.

That’s not including the big bump City will see in West Palm, where its store is coming back from zero with the potential to become a chain leader again, he said.

When Wilma hit, that store’s roof collapsed, and flooding from a broken water main it a total loss. Fortunately for the store’s more than 70 employees, City was in the midst of hiring for new City and Ashley Furniture HomeStores in Stuart and Wellington, Fla., and temporarily placed the West Palm employees in the new locations.

“Most want to go back to the new West Palm store,” Koenig said. “It was a high-volume showroom for us and very profitable, so it’s good to have it back.”

City now has the cafes and the Dianne Davant design departments in five of its 21 Florida stores. Koenig said that next year, it will do complete renovations on four to five more City showrooms — in Pembroke Pines, North Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach and Lantana.

In addition, the retailer has completed lease negotiations and is preparing to open its first City and Ashley stores on Florida’s Gulf Coast, in Naples and Fort Myers, some time in the fourth quarter of 2014, he said.

City has six Ashley stores and plans to open a total of 14 “as quickly as we can,” he said, noting that securing the right real estate is a challenge in Florida.

Fort Lauderdale-based City Furniture is No. 29 on Furniture/Today’s Top 100 with estimated sales last year of $335.1 million.