Rooms To Go, which opened in October in The Markets at Town Center, is converting its closed Avenues area store into a Rooms To Go Outlet.
The city is reviewing a permit for Rooms To Go to renovate the interior of its former full-line store at 11030 Philips Highway at a cost of $1.5 million. Casco Corp. of St. Louis, Missouri, is the project manager.
Rooms To Go CEO Jeffrey Seaman said Sept. 30 he was deciding which of the two closed Rooms To Go stores in the Regency and Avenues areas will be converted into an outlet and which will be made available for sale or lease. He could not be reached March 25 or March 29.
The Markets at Town Center space at 4875 Town Center Parkway is more than the combined space of the two existing stores, which were closed upon the opening of the new location.
The 84,880-square-foot Markets at Town Center store comprises a 73,315-square-foot main floor and 11,565 square feet of mezzanine space.
Seaman said the jobs at the two closed stores were moved to The Markets at Town Center location, and Rooms To Go added about 30 more to reach about 65 positions.
The Markets at Town Center location is about midway between the Regency store, about 6 miles north, and the Avenues site, about 8 miles south.
Seffner-based Rooms To Go closed the roughly 30,000-square-foot Regency area store at 9278 Arlington Expressway, which was built in 1998, and the 41,000-square-foot Avenues area store, which was developed in 1995 near The Avenues mall.
Seaman said Rooms To Go will need 15-20 employees for the outlet store.
The two closed stores are owned by Rooms To Go affiliates.
Rooms To Go also operates a store and an outlet in Orange Park.
The Markets at Town Center store includes Rooms To Go living rooms, bedrooms and dining furniture along with RTG Kids & Patio for children’s and outdoor furnishings.
Rooms To Go occupies a renovated former Toys R Us and Babies R Us store that closed in 2018. Through an entity, Seaman bought it Oct. 30 and renovated it.
The work included complete interior tenant improvements.
At the time, Seaman said Rooms To Go intended to renovate the store as its new concept.
In addition to its current furniture line, Rooms To Go added an expanded children’s section and a 9,000-square-foot area for outdoor patio furniture.
Seamen said Rooms To Go has 170 stores in 10 Southern states and in Puerto Rico. The states comprise Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Seaman said the Jacksonville store is the fifth of the larger concepts. “That is our format going forward,” he said.
