Design Firm Awarded Contract for New Furniture Distribution Center in Louisiana

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Horton Harley & Carter Incorporated (Tampa, Florida) was selected the provide architectural services for a grassroot furniture distribution center in Slidell, Louisiana, for Rooms To Go Incorporated (RTG) (Seffner, Florida).

Plans are to construct an 850,000-square-foot building on a 60-acre site at Interstate 59 and Military Road and to install associated equipment to support the company's regional Gulf Coast operations. The new distribution center is part of the company's plan to open nine new stores with approximately 3 million square feet of additional distribution space over the next two to three years on and near the Gulf Coast in Florida, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. The center will replace an existing smaller warehouse in Mobile, Alabama. The new store follows the company's acquisition of Rhodes Furniture Store, which went into bankruptcy last summer. RTG reopened 11 Rhodes stores as Rooms To Go stores.

Design services are underway with selection of a general contractor expected in four to six weeks. Construction is expected to begin around late March or early April 2008 with completion slated in less than two years. Approximately 350 jobs will be created.

RTG, founded in 1991, operates about 150 stores in nine southern states and had sales of more than $1.6 billion in 2005. As of 2006, the company consisted of 7,500 employees. RTG is considered to be the largest furniture retailers in the United States.

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