Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Park Stores Sets Major Renovation
January 5,
2016 by in Furniture Retailing, Industry 
Home furnishings retailer Park Stores plans to combine its two Altoona, Pa.-area stores under one roof.
The retailer is working with Martin Roberts Design http://www.mrobertsdesign.com on the project. The ground-breaking to is set for later this month.
When complete, the store will offer a unique product mix of custom home theater environments, as well as smart home automation systems, appliances, mattresses and furniture, according to Travis Muccitelli, owner of Park Audio.
“Park Audio has an existing building which is about 12,000-square-feet in size where they have been selling everything audio, from entertainment rooms to cars,” Roberts said. “Nowadays, consumers are not changing their existing car audio systems as often, because most new cars come well equipped with specialized audio.”
Park Audio will drop its car products line and focus its attention on other categories, including appliances and mattresses, which were added to the lineup four and three years ago.
“When the new addition is complete, the store will be a total of 37,000 square feet,” Roberts said.
The company has long operated a Park Furniture & Appliances store in the same market.
“We’ve always wanted to be under one roof, and we’re excited about the prospect of combining the stores,” Muccitelli said. “Currently the Park Furniture building is on three different levels, and when the Park Audio build-out is complete, everything will be on one level which will improve the customer experience and make it easier for our salespeople to work. The expansion will also enable us to implement a unique merchandising plan with an array of products that include a number of exclusives in our market such as better appliances like Sub Zero and Wolf. We already do a lot of work in new construction, from smart home installations to appliances. Now, we’ll be able to furnish those homes as well.”
According to Roberts, the design team has been challenged to make as little modification as possible to the existing building. The solution will be to add large bays alongside the existing building to accommodate new and expanded product categories like upholstery.