Furniture retailer buys third massive tract for another Houston-area store

American Furniture Warehouse, an Englewood, Colorado-based furniture retailer, has acquired a 30-acre tract in Conroe for its third Houston-area store, according to a press release.

The store, just south of the Grand Central Park master-planned community, will be 443,375 square feet. Roughly 150,000 square feet of that will be showroom, and 293,375 square feet will be merchandise storage. It will be on the west side of Interstate 45 at River Plantation Drive, near Bartholet Home Furnishings.

The land was purchased from Gross Land Fund I LP. Ben Brown, a broker with Baker Katz, represented American Furniture Warehouse, and Mark Terpstra, associate vice president of brokerage services with Caldwell Cos., represented Gross Land Fund. There is no timeline yet on when the store will break ground. 

“It’s thrilling and rewarding to see a project take shape, starting with a vacant land tract and then envisioning the finished product, while considering the value it will have for both AFW and the surrounding community,” said Brown. “AFW’s strategic and aggressive expansion into the Houston market speaks volumes about our growing city and opportunities therein.”

In July 2018, American Furniture Warehouse closed on a 29-acre tract of land in Katy and a 23-acre tract in Webster with plans to build similar showrooms and storage facilities. The 355,000-square-foot Webster store opened in September, and the company plans to open the 500,000-square-foot Katy store in April. The Webster store is located on I-45, near the NASA Bypass and TopGolf’s Webster location, while the Katy location is at Interstate 10 and Pin Oak Road. 

Both of those locations were expected to cost around $50 million to build, employ 350 people and generate an estimated $100 million in sales, the Houston Business Journal reported in July 2018. American Furniture Warehouse also secured a 380 Agreement from the city of Webster for up to $7 million in tax rebates over a 16-year term and a 380 Agreement from the city of Katy for up to $6 million in tax rebates over an 18-year term, Brown said at the time.

In March 2018, American Furniture Warehouse secured a 380 Agreement from Conroe for up to $6 million in tax rebates over 16 years, the Houston Chronicle reported, but more details about that location were not disclosed at the time.

For all three stores, Houston-based Burton Construction is the general contractor, and Phoenix-based Butler Design Group is the architect.

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