By Denise L. Scott<\/p>\n
The slowdown in the real estate market isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t slowing down furniture business expansions in south Lee County.<\/p>\n
Five furniture stores have opened at Coconut Point mall in Estero \u00e2\u20ac\u201d World Market, Pier 1 Imports, Z Gallerie, west elm and Design Within Reach.
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\nNearly a third of the 19 furniture showrooms at the International Design Center in Estero are on the first floor open to the public, including Baker, Casa Italia and Stickley.<\/p>\n
Now, even more furniture stores are opening stand-alone locations in Estero and San Carlos Park \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Rooms to Go, City Furniture, Ashley Furniture HomeStore and Carls Patio.<\/p>\n
That may be a sound business decision, according to consumer spending data collected by the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis.<\/p>\n
Despite the cooling real estate market, U.S. consumers spent $85 billion on furniture in 2013, up from $80 billion in 2012 and $75 billion in 2004.<\/p>\n
That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not to say local stores aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feeling a pinch. Spectrum Home Furnishings, Blocker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Furniture and Rhodes Furniture all recently closed stores in Southwest Florida.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The housing market has been a big challenge for the entire industry of home furnishings,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Scott B. Krugman, spokesman for the National Retail Federation. Like any industry, he said, there will be winners and losers.<\/p>\n
He said there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s typically a six-month lag time between the housing market slowing down and sales following suit.<\/p>\n
Jessie Vega\/news-press.com
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Jane Sullivan, store manager for Carls Patio Furniture, greets Kathleen Metcalf and Mike Ganek, the first customers of the day at the new location on U.S. 41 and Alico Road.
\n The bright side, he said, is that housing is cyclical.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A housing market that slows down is eventually going to speed up again,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Krugman said.<\/p>\n
And despite the cooling real estate market, south Lee County is still growing.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Your housing market is dictating the need for furniture retailers,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re seeing an increase in population, whether people are renting or buying.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
And newcomers need furniture, whether they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve signed the dotted line on a mortgage or a rental agreement.<\/p>\n
Carls Patio President Gary Ecoff isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t letting the housing market slow his plans for growth.<\/p>\n
He opened his 13th location early this month on U.S. 41 at Alico Road. The company has 10 stores in Florida, including one in Naples, and a few in California.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re very excited to be in Fort Myers,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a growth story, even in light of what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on in housing. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a temporary blip on our radar.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Ecoff said his company has been fortunate, increasing its profits even during the real estate downturn. He attributes some of his success to the hot trend in patio furniture.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Nice outdoor furniture is very fashionable right now,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to pick up a magazine or turn on HGTV and not see outdoor living.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Ecoff said many people who can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sell their house right now have decided to fix up their backyard to enjoy in the meantime.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153When they plan to sell, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something they can move with them,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not so concerned about whether it will fit within the confines of four walls at the next house.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Another east coast Florida company expanding into Southwest Florida is City Furniture.<\/p>\n
That store, and its offshoot Ashley Furniture HomeStore, will be built in San Carlos Park on the north side of Alico Road just east of Interstate 75.<\/p>\n
City Furniture President Keith Koenig signed the deal to build the 75,000-square-foot City Furniture and neighboring 35,000-square-foot Ashley Furniture Homestore during the height of the real estate boom two years ago.<\/p>\n
He said county approvals took 15 months.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The real estate market affects our business pretty substantially,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153One of the stages when people buy furniture is moving into a new home or condo. In Florida, the housing slowdown has been worse than other markets.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Koenig has finally gotten approval to begin construction within the next month. He expects to open both stores by October or November 2015, along with two more in Naples.<\/p>\n
Koenig\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s company is licensed by Ashley, a furniture manufacturing company, to build the Ashley Furniture HomeStore concept in southern Florida.<\/p>\n
He said both stores will offer furniture priced in the middle to upper ranges.<\/p>\n
Like Ecoff, Koenig isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t letting today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s housing market dictate his long-term plans to grow the 35-year-old company.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t shake my confidence. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in the best part of the best state in the country,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There were still 350,000 people who moved into this state. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a pent-up demand. They may be sitting on the sidelines, waiting for prices to come down. Sooner or later, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to buy a home.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Rooms to Go, which recently remodeled its Fort Myers store, has plans to build another stand-alone store in Paradise Shoppes of Estero, at the northwest corner of U.S. 41 and Williams Road.<\/p>\n
A Rooms to Go spokeswoman did not return a call for comment.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Florida will always remain a desirable place,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ecoff said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a matter of if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to come back. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a matter of when.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Denise L. Scott The slowdown in the real estate market isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t slowing down furniture business expansions in south Lee County. Five furniture stores have opened at Coconut Point mall in Estero \u00e2\u20ac\u201d World Market, Pier 1 Imports, Z Gallerie, west elm and Design Within Reach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-furniture-indonesia-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}