Will serve regional stores and ‘allow for growth’
SLIDELL, La. — Rooms To Go is negotiating to build an 850,000-

square-foot distribution center with and attached clearance outlet here to serve its Gulf Coast stores.

The Seffner, Fla.-based Top 100 company wants to open the facility in less than two years “pending successful discussions with the state,” said Jeff Seaman, RTG’s president and CEO.

It’s part of a larger plan to open about 3 million square feet of additional distribution center space over the next two to three years to support existing markets and “allow for growth,” he said.

The roughly $40 million project in a industrial park near Slidell, La., would replace a smaller warehouse in Mobile, Ala., serving area stores.

Rooms To Go entered New Orleans and surrounding markets late last year after its acquisition of Kirschman’s stores in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Covington, La., and Gulfport Miss. It currently operates a main showroom and outlet in the New Orleans area and a store in Baton Rouge. A third New Orleans location will open in April, Seaman said.

“We need the space,” he said. “We like building our own facilities. We design them around the way we operate, so it’s much more efficient.”

RTG, with about 120 stores and sales in 2012 of $1.6 billion, already operates five distribution centers of 500,000 square feet or larger, including its 1.6 million facility in Lakeland, Fla.

The company plans to replace its 440,000-square-foot Charlotte, N.C., distribution center with one in the 800,000-square-foot range.