Conn’s HomePlus, a furniture, mattresses, home appliances and consumer electronics retailer, intends to build-out at the closed Rooms To Go store in the Arlington area near Regency Square Mall.
Publicly traded Conn’s HomePlus, based in The Woodlands, Texas, near Houston, operates 160 locations across 15 primarily Sunbelt states, including 13 in Florida.
It calls itself “a specialty retailer with a unique retail + credit business model.”
Conn’s HomePlus has not responded to a call or email for comment.
The city is reviewing a building permit application for interior demolition of the 29,934-square-foot space at 9278 Arlington Expressway in the Regency Court Shopping Center.
DLP Construction Inc. of Alpharetta, Georgia, is the contractor for the project to demolish the interior to prepare the space for a future tenant, identified as Conn’s HomePlus.
Open Studio Architecture of San Antonio is shown as the architect.
Rooms To Go closed in September as the company opened a larger store in The Markets at Town Center. The Regency area structure was built in 1998.
Conn’s website conns.com said the company started more than 130 years ago as a small plumbing and heating company in Beaumont, Texas.
“Today, we are a growing company with over $1.5 billion in annual revenue and more than 4,000 employees across the southern United States,” it says.
“With the strong belief that everyone deserves a home they love, our mission is to elevate our customer’s home life to home love.”
The company said its primary product categories include:
• Furniture and mattress, including furniture and related accessories for the living room, dining room and bedroom, as well as traditional and specialty mattresses
• Home appliance, including refrigerators, freezers, washers, dryers, dishwashers and ranges
• Consumer electronics, including LED, OLED, QLED, 4K Ultra HD and 8K televisions, gaming products, video game consoles and home theater and portable audio equipment
• Home office, including computers, printers and accessories.
It also offers seasonal products.
Conn’s offers in-house credit options for customers in addition to third-party financing programs and third-party lease-to-own payment plans.
Conn’s Inc. said March 29 that sales rose 22.7% in fiscal 2022, which ended Jan. 31, despite industrywide supply chain challenges and the COVID-19 omicron variant in the fourth quarter, “reflecting the continued success of our strategic growth plan, our differentiated value proposition and the hard work and dedication of our team members.”
CEO Chandra Holt said the company posted record e-commerce sales as it expanded digital capabilities.
Holt said pursuing growth across payment options “has de-risked our business, increased our addressable market and improved credit segment performance, which helped drive record earnings in fiscal year 2022.”
During fiscal 2022, same-store sales increased 15.3%, and increased 2.5% on a two-year basis.
E-commerce sales increased 171.3% to a record annual $71.3 million.
Conn’s said that enhancing the credit business is a key strategic priority. It bought lease-to-own technology “that will enable us to originate and service lease-to-own customers in-house.”
Holt said that during current fiscal year 2023, Conn’s will invest in initiatives that strengthen its core, enhance the credit business and accelerate e-commerce growth.
On Jan. 21, Conn’s HomePlus announced expansion into the Daytona Beach market with a store in the International Speedway Square.
That store is 36,000 square feet,
The company said it was the 11th Conn’s HomePlus to open in Florida in the previous 13 months and brought the total number of stores to 158, across 15 states.
On Jan. 26, Seeking Alpha, a stock market and financial news site, reported that Conn’s announced two more Conn’s HomePlus showrooms would open in February in Orlando at the Highland Lakes (41,980 square feet) and Colonial Plaza (42,780 square feet) shopping centers.
The 13 Florida stores are in Altamonte, Bradenton, Daytona Beach, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Ocala, Orange City, three in Orlando, Pensacola, Port Richey and Tampa.
In its annual Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company said March 29 it had 160 stores as of Jan. 31.
It said that during fiscal 2023, it plans to open 13 to 16 new stores in existing states to leverage current infrastructure.
Rooms To Go has been listing its closed Regency area property as available after the business moved to its new superstore at The Markets at Town Center.
The Regency and Avenues area Rooms To Go stores closed in September as the new location opened.
Rooms To Go intends to convert the Avenues store at 11030 Philips Highway into a Rooms To Go Outlet.
The 41,000-square-foot Avenues store in 1995.
Rooms To Go CEO Jeffrey Seaman said Sept. 30 he was deciding which of the two closed Rooms To Go stores would be converted into an outlet and which would be made available for sale or lease.
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.
