South Florida-based City Furniture’s much-hyped entry into the Orlando-area market has begun. The company opened the first of three stores in Central Florida earlier this month, an 85,000 square foot showroom in Ocoee, Fla. By the end of 2019 two more furniture and accessories superstores will be up and running near The Mall at Millenial in Orlando and in Altamonte Springs.
The company’s $100 investment also includes a Central Florida distribution center near the Ocoee showroom.
City officials have had their eye on Central Florida for the past decade years but could never find the right time. “The great recession of 2008 slowed things down a lot to the point that we had to focus on South Florida, but we never walked away completely,” said Andrew Koenig, vice president of operations and marketing for City. “Everybody’s super excited about the openings. We’re all on cloud nine.”
“Orlando’s dynamic business scene has been on our radar screen for several years,” said City Furniture CEO Keith Koenig. “Now, with three great sites and a thriving economy, we’re moving quickly to build market presence and to be active in the local community.”
[City Furniture opens first dual-branded store with Ashley HomeStore]
In conjunction with the Ocoee showroom’s grand opening weekend Nov. 9-12, Keith Koenig announced that City Furniture is making a $1 million donation to Covenant House Florida, a non-profit agency that provides shelter and programming in South and Central Florida to children and youth who are homeless or at risk. The contribution comes as Covenant House Florida kicks off a statewide $10 million fundraising campaign to expand the agency’s facilities and programming to meet growing needs of Florida’s children and youth.
City Furniture’s Ocoee showroom features the company’s Generation 3 store design company officials hope provides a fresh, relaxed, fun customer experience. Inside shoppers can grab a glass of wine or craft beer at the KC Café & Wine Bar while roaming the showroom and mattress gallery.
With its Central Florida expansion in mind, City Furniture has converted 80 percent of its 100-truck delivery fleet to use clean-running compressed natural gas (CNG) The firm has ordered five Tesla Semi all electric trucks, which will make transporting merchandise from City Furniture’s 900,000-square-foot headquarters distribution center near Fort Lauderdale to the Ocoee warehouse even more economical and environmentally sound. City Furniture’s longtime green commitment also includes recycling six million pounds of cardboard and 200,000 pounds of Styrofoam from merchandise packaging annually.
City Furniture operates 17 showrooms from Miami through Orlando, and in Fort Myers, Naples and at The Villages, as well as 12 Ashley Furniture showrooms as that brand’s Southeast and Southwest Florida licensee.
