Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
City Opens in Central Florida
December 10,
2013 by in Industry, Store Openings 
City Furniture has opened its first Central Florida stores in time for the holiday shopping season, two showrooms at The Villages, an active adult community near Orlando.
Tamarac, Fla.-based City teamed with Mico Customs of Wildwood to renovate two former furniture stores serving The Villages area. Construction began in late September, and both stores were open by mid-November with new, environmentally friendly features.
At City Furniture’s store at the La Plaza Grande shopping center in Lady Lake, construction crews removed walls, upgraded flooring and brightened the interior with hundreds of energy efficient LED light bulbs. The high-profile store at Lake Sumter Landing in The Villages has fresh interior and exterior treatments.
City Furniture, which employs more than 1,000 people throughout Florida, has hired a sales and support staff of 40 people at the two stores, according to City Furniture President Keith Koenig. Brands available at the company’s new stores in The Villages and online at include Bernhardt, City Furniture’s own Kevin Charles line of quality upholstered furniture crafted at the company’s factory in Mississippi, and mattress brands including Serta, Sealy and Tempur-Pedic.
Koenig noted that City Furniture rolled out e-commerce earlier this year, and has been providing ongoing delivery service in the Orlando and Tampa areas. With its new stores at The Villages, the retailer has extended its footprint from south Miami-Dade through Lake, Sumter and Marion counties.
With a total of 26 stores--16 City Furniture and 10 Ashley Furniture HomeStore showrooms--the retailer has succeeded in very different markets by tuning its merchandise to each community’s needs and preferences.
“The Villages offers active, relaxed and gracious lifestyles,” Koenig said, “and we’ve shaped our wide selection of coastal, Old World, transitional and modern furniture and accessories accordingly, with some of Florida’s best furniture values.”
In renovating both stores at The Villages, City Furniture incorporated energy-saving features, based on the firm’s long-standing commitment to environmental stewardship. Koenig said he expects that using all-LED bulbs will cut energy use significantly, and the change to electronic invoicing and ordering systems trims the stores’ paper use.
“Green” paints without volatile organic compounds and the showrooms’ recyclable flooring add to their environmentally friendly appeal.