Furniture City's El Paso store to temporarily close for remodeling

Even though the huge banners outside Furniture City's East El Paso store say, "Store Closing," it will not be permanent, the owner says.

The store is scheduled to temporarily close for about two months of remodeling, tentatively set to begin around June 10, and reopen in August, said Omar Rahman, president and co-owner of the company that operates the store.

Furniture City in late January permanently closed its West Side location because the store lost its lease, Rahman said. The company has no current plans to open a second store in El Paso.

"This is a good time to have the (East Side) store closed" for remodeling because sales in the retail furniture industry are down after an unprecedented sales boom in 2020 through 2022, Rahman said.

The boom came during the COVID-19 pandemic when people wanted to improve their homes and were not spending money on other things, such as travel, he said.

However, furniture deliveries were substantially delayed during the pandemic by factory closings and logistic problems, those in the industry previously reported.

Retail furniture sales are expected to improve beginning in 2025, according to industry projections, Rahman said.

The East Side store is now having a "Store Closing Sale," with discounts of up to 60%, according to the store's Facebook page.

It employs about 25 people who will continue working during the remodeling, Rahman said.

The 50,000 square-foot store opened in 2014. The location, leased by Furniture City, previously operated as a RoomStore until the national chain went bankrupt in 2012. It's located at 7122 Gateway Blvd. East, near Hawkins Boulevard, next to a New Deal Furniture store.

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Rahman's company operates a Furniture City in Albuquerque. He also is co-owner of Furniture City stores in California: Riverside and Montclair, which may be sold in the future, he said.

Three other Furniture City stores in Fresno, Modesto and Bakersfield, California, are owned by another company but are affiliated with Rahman's stores, he said.

Vic Kolenc may be reached at 915-546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on Twitter, now known as X.

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This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Furniture City's El Paso store to temporarily close for remodeling