City Furniture Opens New Ashley Furniture HomeStore

Furniture World News Desk on 6/11/2014

South Florida furniture retailer City Furniture reported that with the opening of a new Ashley Furniture HomeStore in Cutler Bay,  the company  completes the $17.5 million realignment of its South Florida retail network and announces plans for a new expansion phase.

The 34,000-square-foot Ashley Furniture HomeStore at 18780 South Dixie Highway adjoins a City Furniture showroom that opened in October on the high-profile site, creating a 90,000-square-foot “superstore.” An interior walk-through makes it easy for customers to park once and shop both brands. City Furniture is the Southeast and Southwest Florida licensee for Ashley Furniture HomeStore.

“This opening is a significant milestone in our strategic plan,” said City Furniture President Keith Koenig. “We’ve added or renovated five South Florida stores since 2012, reconfiguring our company to do a better job meeting customers’ needs. At the same time, we’ve geared our expanded product lines and great values to consumers’ evolving tastes.

“Now, with full confidence in Florida’s vibrant economic outlook, we’re planning to open three more Ashley Furniture HomeStore locations and another City Furniture showroom in South Florida in the next three years,” Koenig added. “At the same time, we’re starting site location research for future expansion in the Tampa and Orlando markets,” he said. The firm opened its first Central Florida locations, two stores at The Villages, in late 2013.

In Miami-Dade County, Koenig said his team is targeting sites in North Miami/Miami Gardens and the Dadeland/Pinecrest market, plus they’re looking at locations in the Dolphin Mall area for a large superstore pairing both brands.

Based on its on-target forecasting for an improving economy, City Furniture has invested in the infrastructure to support dynamic growth in the coming years. Since 2009, the company added more than 250 associates to its diverse team, which now tops 1100 people. E-commerce, rolled out in 2013, is the fastest growing part of the company’s business. This spring the firm opened a compressed natural gas station at its Tamarac headquarters campus, as home base for the 51 new “green,” cost-efficient CNG-powered trucks that make deliveries from the Keys through the Tampa and Orlando areas.

Cutler Bay has been a high-growth market for the company since it opened a City Furniture store on the site in 1993, and in 2011 Koenig’s team acquired the adjoining land. Stiles Construction built the new two-story City Furniture showroom from the ground up and renovated the former City Furniture showroom as an Ashley Furniture HomeStore. Both stores reflect the retailer’s far-reaching commitment to environmental stewardship. The major renovation that created the Ashley Furniture HomeStore added many “green” features, and the adjoining City Furniture showroom was built to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification from the U.S. Green Building Council – the company’s sixth location expected to receive that certification.

An ongoing challenge, Koenig said, is finding enough sales talent to keep pace with steady growth in Florida’s diverse markets. In response, City Furniture developed its Sales Academy to provide excellent training. With plans to increase his workforce in the next few years, Koenig said, “We have to work extra hard to find enough team members with great interpersonal skills, a positive attitude and a strong work ethic built on good education and communication abilities. We aren’t necessarily looking for prior sales experience. We’ve had great success in college recruiting, and that’s given us a strong pipeline of terrific associates who help make what I do a lot of fun.”

For information visit www.cityfurniture.com.


Ashley Furniture HomeStore is the #1 selling furniture store brand in the world with over 500 locations. The retailer is an exclusive provider of furniture from Ashley Furniture Industries, Inc., the largest furniture manufacturer in the United States. For more information on Ashley Furniture HomeStore and our products, visit our website at www.ashleyfurniturehomestore.com.

Ashley Furniture Industries, Inc. is the largest furniture manufacturer in the United States and one of the largest in the world. The company offers one of the industry’s broadest product assortments to retail partners in 123 countries. From design through fulfillment, Ashley continuously strives to provide the best values, selection and service in the furniture industry. For more information on Ashley Furniture and its products, visit www.ashleyfurniture.com or www.ashley.com.cn.