$25M Sarasota-UTC area furniture store to go big and green

A furniture store with more square footage than two football fields is moving into University Town Center, the bustling shopping and entertainment district just outside Lakewood Ranch. 

City Furniture plans to open a more than 120,000-square-foot showroom next to Tesla in UTC's East District by summer 2025. The East District at UTC is being developed between the Mall at UTC and Interstate 75. East Manatee County-nased Benderson Development is the developer behind the mall, while Fort Lauderdale-based Miller Construction Co. has the $25 million contract to build the store, which will feature two escalators, a two-story tilt wall and electric vehicle charging stations.

In addition to featuring high-quality mattresses and home decor, the showroom will also include a spot to relax with a cocktail or perk up with a coffee. The KC Cafe & Wine Bar will offer wine, craft beer, coffee, tea and snacks, all within the store.

“We’re ridiculously excited,” City Furniture CEO Andrew Koenig says. “My wife (Deana) and I, whenever we go to the mall (at UTC), we say this is one of the best retail shopping areas we’ve ever seen.”

He says UTC “checked all the boxes.” 

Koenig says the company is expanding in the Tampa Bay area and notes Sarasota is a thriving, growing city within that area, and UTC is near a major highway, which offers visibility and easy access to shoppers.

Koenig and his wife live in Plantation, in Broward County. 

Courtesy image

City Furniture, a family-run business, is based in nearby Fort Lauderdale. The UTC store will be the company's 25th in the state and the third in the Tampa Bay region. Another store is under construction in Wesley Chapel and will open after the UTC store.

Koenig’s father, Keith Koenig, and his uncle, Kevin Koenig, opened the first showroom in 1971. It was 900 square feet and sold mainly waterbeds, so it was aptly named Waterbed City. 

In 1994, Waterbed City transitioned into City Furniture. The stores started selling furnishings for the whole home, not just the bedrooms. About 11 years ago, the company evolved again under the leadership of 41-year-old Andrew Koenig and a young staff.

That young staff includes a move toward being more environmentally-friendly. “I feed off the associates wanting us to be more green and environmentally friendly.” Koenig says. “There’s a lot of young people here that want to make sure that we’re doing right by the environment, doing right by the community and doing right by our customers.”

Koenig started down the green path after the foreign oil crisis hit in 2012. What he called a “fun project” to investigate alternatives spurred into a company philosophy and resulted in a major cost savings over time. 

The fleet started converting to compressed natural gas, which Koenig says at the time cost $1.25 per gallon versus $4 plus per gallon of diesel.

Now, the company’s Tampa Bay fleet runs entirely on compressed natural gas, which lowers emission by about 70% when compared to a diesel truck.

Koenig is also waiting on five Tesla semi trucks to be delivered. He says the company’s order number is just over 1,000. A year ago, he received a letter from Tesla that said the trucks were about a year out, so he’s hoping to have them by the end of next year.

The trucks will drive 500 miles before needing a charge. Koenig didn’t have the exact price on hand, but says each truck cost over $200,000 — a $1 million-plus investment. 

“We’re okay to pay more money up front in order to save in the long haul,” he says. “We’re pretty excited that once those trucks come in, we’re going to have the right solar energy strategy to charge them.”

The UTC store will also be one of nine City Furniture stores that are LEED certified. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design; the designation is awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council. 

Koenig says earning the certificate requires using approved building materials, energy efficient air conditioning units and a lot of LED lighting to keep the energy consumption low. 

He expects the UTC store will also be Energy Star certified by the Environmental Protection Agency. Commercial buildings must be more efficient than 75% of similar buildings nationwide to earn the star.

“We are the No. 1 home furnishing retailer in the country with the most LEED certified square footage of retail space, which is kind of cool,” Koenig says. “So Sarasota is going to add to that.” 

This article originally appeared on sister site YourObserver.com.