Rooms to Go plans to consolidate its two Naples furniture stores under one roof when it builds its new larger showroom within the next year in the city’s Park Shore area.
The existing Rooms To Go and Rooms To Go Patio stores, both on U.S. 41 in the city of Naples, will be relocated to a new showroom at 4067 Ninth St. N., which also is within city limits about a half-mile north of the current main store but on the other side of U.S. 41. The new location will be built on the large vacant lot between two hotels, Inn of Naples and Marriott’s Residence Inn. Its new showroom is tentatively targeted to open in late 2023.
This will be at least the second time Rooms To Go has expanded and moved in Naples. Before opening its existing store at 3520 U.S. 41 N., Rooms To Go operated at 3770 U.S. 41 N., now home to La-Z-Boy. In late 2006, Rooms To Go nearly doubled its space by moving that Naples store at U.S. 41 and Frank Whiteman Boulevard about two blocks down the highway to the former site of Hodges Funeral Chapel on the corner of U.S. 41 and Ohio Drive.
Expanding from nearly 16,000 square feet to 28,000 square feet in 2006, Rooms To Go’s proposed store to be built in Naples will total 48,641 square feet. The main Rooms To Go store will be nearly 37,000 square feet while its adjoining store for outdoor furniture on its southern end will be more than 10,000 square feet, according to architectural plans and renderings filed with the city by Naples-based MHK Architecture & Planning.
Last November, Redfish III LLC, a company affiliated with Florida-based Rooms To Go, purchased the 3.86 acres of vacant commercial property at 4067 Ninth St. N. for $11.5 million from Jeffrey S. Hoffman. LandQwest founding principal John Mounce and associate Jessica McEvoy represented the buyer in the transaction.
That recent sale price was more than double what Rooms To Go paid in 2007 when it purchased 2.6 acres for its current store for $5.5 million from Earl G. Hodges. Meanwhile, the company leases the space for its patio furniture store, which used to be Carls Patio.
Development of its new vacant property was tied up for years a couple of decades ago because the large commercial lot was home to endangered vegetation known as coastal scrub, Naples city officials said. To settle the environmental issue, the historical property owners, North Trail Land Trust investment group, paid the city thousands of dollars an acre. In turn, the city used these mitigation funds to help create the Naples Preserve near Coastland Center mall at U.S. 41 and Fleischmann Boulevard.
In addition to endangered flora, the lot was home for many years to a highly visible, revenue-producing billboard. After the billboard was damaged by Hurricane Irma in 2017 the city ordered that it be removed.
Founded in 1990 and headquartered near Tampa, Rooms To Go is one of the largest furniture retailers in the country. The company purchased the Carls Patio chain in 2018 to create RTG Patio.
