Ashley Homestore adds to south-side furniture mecca

Andrew Covington and his father, Robert Covington, plan to open a $2.5 million, 45,000-square-foot store by Christmas at 1715 E. Independence St., around the corner from a Wal-Mart Supercenter and Kohl’s and on the same street as six other furniture stores. Bassett Furniture Direct, La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries, Slumberland Furniture, Hank’s Fine Furniture, Furniture Factory Outlet and Indigo Imports operate within less than a mile of each other on Independence, parallel to James River Freeway.

(Click here for a map of the six furniture stores operating within a mile of each other on East Independence.)

“It was definitely an appealing area to us,” said Covington, majority owner in the Springfield store.

Covington said they were drawn to Independence Street because of the approximately 45,000 cars that daily drive through the Glenstone Avenue and James River Freeway intersection and high foot traffic from nearby furniture stores.

“As they say in retail (and real estate): location, location, location,” said Dennis Wubbena, marketing professor at Evangel University.

Wubbena said the overall market is made up of three kinds of goods: commodities, shopping goods and specialty goods. In the case of shopping goods – furniture, cars and clothing – Wubbena said there’s enough difference among products that retailers don’t have to compete in price wars, but they benefit from concentrated shopping traffic.

For example, Covington said about 90 percent of his inventory will be exclusive to his showroom.

There are about 275 Ashley Furniture Homestores worldwide, operating under a license agreement with Arcadia, Wisc.-based Ashley Furniture Industries Inc., a privately held company with 2005 sales of $2.5 billion.

Covington, who is minority owner with his uncle, Jim Spencer, in about 10 other Ashley Furniture Homestores in Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky, is excited about tapping into the already established shopper base on Independence Street.

Meanwhile, his competitors seem to be equally as excited to have the competition. Arkansas-based Hank’s Fine Furniture sold the land to Covington’s developer, Jackson, Tenn.-based Cox McCarver Development, according to Hank’s officials. Hank’s and Furniture Factory Outlet are the two most recent stores to go up there; in late 2005, Hank’s opened a $3.5 million, 57,000-square-foot showroom and warehouse at 1645 E. Independence St., and in mid-2006, Furniture Factory Outlet opened a $1.8 million, 32,000-square-foot store at 1434 E. Independence St.

Chris Kassing, president of RA-CA Company of Springfield LLC, the parent company of the Independence Street Slumberland Furniture store, said there’s a clear link between increased sales and increased competition, though he wouldn’t disclose his store’s revenues.

Slumberland, built in 1998 as a Bassett store, was the first furniture store on the street.

“It looked like mostly farmland to Fremont (Avenue),” Kassing said of the area at the time.

The store converted to Slumberland after an ownership change in 2002.

“It has been phenomenal to have all these stores come out there,” Kassing added. “A store like Ashley is a strong addition. You know, I’ve kind of heard that street referred to lately as ‘Furniture Mile,’ or something like that. What it’s done is really help establish East Independence as the prime furniture destination in Springfield.”

Northeast Springfield has its own furniture emporium, dubbed with the trademark Furniture Row. Furniture Row Cos. owns and operates Sofa Mart, Denver Mattress Co., Oak Express and Bedroom Expressions at East Division Street and U.S. Highway 65.

Back on the south side, Bassett Furniture plans on closing later this year, according to a store employee.

Morelock-Ross Builders Inc. is general contractor for the Ashley store. Covington has a long-term lease agreement with building owner and developer Cox McCarver Development.[[In-content Ad]]