Fairfield to get furniture giant Ashley Furniture store

By Christine Cubé

FAIRFIELD - Home furnishings giant Ashley Furniture plans to open a massive store in Fairfield next to the Saturn dealership on Interstate 80. The Austin, Texas-based Retail Endeavors Group closed on the deal Monday with local real estate brokerage Colliers International. The group bought 5.41 acres to make way for a 46,000-square-foot furniture store, which will be the company's first store in Solano County, according to the Fairfield Planning and Development Department.Representatives with Retail Endeavors Group and Ashley Furniture, which is based in Arcadia, Wis., didn't return calls for comment.

Brooks Pedder, managing partner with Colliers International, said the furniture facility's location in Fairfield will yield huge economic benefits to Fairfield and Solano County. He said the store anticipates generating total sales of about $40 million a year."Anything that fronts I-80 is gold," Pedder said. "It's a commodity that's becoming more and more scarce and (land) values are rapidly increasing." The building likely will be delivered by first quarter of 2006.

Mike Ammann, president of the Solano EDC, said Ashley Furniture will offer local residents variety and selection on furniture."We're building a lot of homes that need to be filled with furniture," he said. "There are a lot of different types of furniture needs because of the different types of housing projects we have under way."

On its corporate Web site, Ashley Furniture touts itself as the second-largest home furniture manufacturing company. Last year, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall on more than 22,000 units of Ashley Furniture bunk beds that presented a potential entrapment hazard to children.

For more information, visit www.ashleyfurniture.com.

Reach Christine Cubé at 427-6934 or ccube@dailyrepublic.net.

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