Century 21 to debut home store

By Andrea Lillo -- Home Textiles Today, 8/13/2001 12:00:00 AM

BROOKLYN, NY —

Century 21, the shopping mecca for customers looking for great deals on designer duds, will open its first home store here in September, though the date is still undecided.

A full-line department store, Century 21 already operates two locations — one here in the Bay Ridge neighborhood on 86th Street and one in Manhattan — with another on the way in Morristown, NJ.

After consolidating merchandise in a warehouse across the street from the Bay Ridge location to another facility, the company decided to use the space as a standalone store for one of its departments, said Raymond Gindi, coo. "It's a nice-sized location, and we talked about what department would work well there and could support itself."

The home furnishings department won, and the retailer redesigned the space from a warehouse to a store unlike its others. Spanning 20,000 square feet, it has an open feeling, Gindi said, with 15-foot-high fixtures along the perimeter and concrete floors "We were looking for something fresh," he said.

The merchandise assortment is still being worked out, he added, thought it will be able to offer more breadth. And because the home section in the Bay Ridge store across the street was moved into the new location, that store will undergo renovations as well, including the addition of a second level and escalators.