Home Furnishings Association member HOM Furniture announced it is building a new flagship megastore in Bloomington, Minn., that, when finished, will house all three of its brands — HOM Furniture, Gabberts and Dock 86 Furniture.
Construction will begin May 1. The site will more than double the size of the current location – from 100,000 to more than 206,000 square feet, making it the company’s largest store.
HOM Furniture CEO Rod Johansen said the project has been in the works for three years now as his company patiently waited to acquire two pieces of property needed to create the planned footprint. “It’s been a lot of planning and now we’re ready to move ahead,” said Johansen. “I think everyone is excited to finally be moving forward.”
The development means the end to Gabberts ties to the Galleria, a high-end mall in Edina, Minn., where the furniture store has been for 60 years. Gabberts has been one of several home furnishings anchor stores at the mall, along with Restoration Hardware, Crate and Barrell, and Pottery Barn. The flagship store will be built near the intersection of Interstates 35W and 494.
Even though Gabberts is leaving the mall, that doesn’t mean the company is exiting. Johansen is still considering plans for another HOM retail concept in the Galleria Gabberts space. “We may put something else in there,” he said. “We can stay there if we want. We have options to go beyond our lease.”
The HOM store now at that Bloomington site will be razed to make way for the flagship store. The new complex will resemble one that the company has operated for several years in Little Canada, Minn., just outside Minneapolis and St. Paul.
[HOM Furniture tees it up for charity]
Johansen said the company will begin a liquidation sale this week at the Bloomington HOM, which is expected to close in early April.
The new Gabberts showroom will be two stories and larger than the existing store in Edina. A two-story HOM store and single-level Dock 86 will share an entrance but will be separate stores. The Bloomington flagship will be about 40,000 square feet larger than the Little Canada location.
HOM has 17 locations in the Upper Midwest. Its last new location opened in Brooklyn Center, Minn., in December, and the next location will debut in the spring at the Wausau Center Mall in Wausau, Wis., where HOM is taking over the retail space formerly occupied by a Younkers department store.
HOM ranks as one of the nation’s largest furniture retailers serving customers in the Upper Midwestern states of Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin.
