Monday, February 25, 2019

[UPDATE] Rooms To Go Buckhead Not Going Anywhere: Will Spend Nearly $2 Million on Renovation

The Rooms To Go furniture store at the corner of Peachtree and Piedmont Roads in Buckhead has closed.  The store, located at 3256 Peachtree Road, occupies one of the most attractive redevelopment corners in metro Atlanta.  It will not be replaced with anything anytime soon, however, as permits filed by the Florida-based retailer indicate that they intend to undergo a nearly $2 million renovation.  

Rooms To Go, by way of two separate entities, "RTG FURNITURE CORP OF GEORGIA," and "LOGAN GEORGIA ASSOCIATES L P" owns the property, which according to Fulton County tax records, is actually three parcels totaling nearly 1.5 acres.  The significant capital investment being made to the building suggests the company's long term commitment to the property. 

Property records indicate that the company paid about $1.5 million for the combined three parcel site in late 1995 and that today the properties are valued by Fulton County at about $3.6 million.  

It's unclear exactly how long the renovation will take, but the permits on file with the City of Atlanta indicate that work will include both interior and exterior renovations, including MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing.)   

In recent years, a number of other furniture retailers have joined (or rejoined) the Buckhead market.  Catty corner from Rooms to Go, Atlanta's Haverty's Furniture opened a "Style Studio" at Buckhead Square replacing The Container Store which relocated to  a portion of the former Borders, north on Peachtree at Buckhead Triangle.  The opening of Haverty's marked their return to the market and their return, in fact, to the exact center they had once occupied.  Modani opened in the former Ethan Allen space in nearby Buckhead Pavilion in 2013 while Ethan Allen later returned to Buckhead in July 2017 at Lenox Marketplace.  

Not far away, close to the Lindbergh MARTA station, The Dump opened in 2010 while Ashley (Furniture) HomeStore opened later that same year in Lindbergh Plaza.  



There was one notable Buckhead furniture closure last year when HUFF Furniture shuttered their Peachtree Road showroom after more than 60 years in business.   
Rendering of Buckhead renovations presented to Livable Buckhead
Rooms To Go, which has regional offices in Dunwoody, operates about a dozen stores in Georgia in addition to outlet stores in Norcross and Forest Park and an "express" store in Gainesville.  

The company closed their Rooms To Go and Rooms to Go Kids stores on Cobb Parkway not far from SunTrust Park a few years ago, and also relocated their Alpharetta store from North Point Parkway to Haynes Bridge Road where the more contemporary store now occupies a prominent corner.  The former Alpharetta store, now a Party City, looked like the Buckhead store and its replacement store is reportedly what the Buckhead store will be modeled after.  

Rooms To Go on Haynes Bridge Road in Alpharetta 

Morton "Morty" Seaman and his son Jeffrey Seaman opened the first Rooms To Go in Orlando, Florida in 1991.  The company entered the Atlanta market in 1995 and also opened a distribution center in Suwanee the following year.  Today, the company operates more than 130 stores and Georgia is the company's third largest market by store count, behind Florida and Texas.   

The new and improved Buckhead Rooms To Go is expected to open later this fall.  

Where did you buy the furniture for your home?  What is your favorite brand of furniture?  Are you surprised that Rooms To Go is renovating their store rather than selling the property?

Please share your thoughts below  

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great. I've been hoping for years that RTG would be demolished and that prime corner would be replaced with something more exciting and urban. Guess not.

Anonymous said...

Oh good. I was worried another glass building would go here that created traffic.

Anonymous said...

That’s great but the space is still too small for one of their flagship style stores with the kids/teens collection. Its already a tight setup with limited parking. I wonder how they will overcome that.

Chris said...

http://livablebuckhead.com/developments/rooms-to-go-3256-peachtree-road/

Anonymous said...

Good for them. They're a business that clearly fills a need (based on their popularity). Yes, this is a prime corner, but it's a prime corner that already has horrible traffic. No need to add Terminus Building #4. On paper, one would think a Buckhead location for "basic" furniture wouldn't be a good fit, but clearly that's not the case. While my situation has changed, R2G was a welcome need when I was new to the workforce and couldn't afford to pay big bucks for furniture nor wanted to have my furniture on a high interest credit card. They served me well and hope they can serve people well for many years to come.

Anonymous said...

There are an astonishing number of households that are house and automobile "poor". The LQQK @ ME conspicuous consumption crowd only cares about outward appearances others can SEE that give the appearance of wealth. RTG is all that many can literally afford.

Anonymous said...

When we bought our house 20 years ago we were certainly house poor. RTG was our go to place and we furnished our dining room and 3 bedrooms using RTG furniture. While we have the means to replace it, we haven't because it has held up pretty well. That's some incredible value for the price.

Anonymous said...

The store does well but its not their strongest location. The people that shop there generally do not live in the area and those who do live in the area that do shop there are generally doing so for guest rooms or vacation homes.

Anonymous said...

So between the Waldorf Astoria and Streets of Buckhead there will
still be a junk furniture shop more suited for Alabama than for a prime lot in fancy Buckhead.

Anonymous said...

Some of the uppity comments are quite a reflection on the community and aren't a surprise. Our family has done well for ourselves and have purchased furniture from higher end to RTG. We have a sofa from them that has held up extremely well and our first bedroom set 20 years ago was from them. We only recently donated the furniture as we were redoing our bedroom not due to wear.

We went to Haverty's where they are supposedly a higher grade outfit and found that they were on nearly the same plane as RTG with ridiculously inflated prices for the supposed quality.

It's refreshing to see a parcel of land not being sold to the highest bidder and rather indicative of the success of that particular location.

Anonymous said...

@anonymous there are plenty of Atlantans who buy furniture at RTG..... why bring Alabama into this?

Anonymous said...

Jeff Seaman is a very shrewd businessman. He knows that piece of real estate is just going to keep increasing in price. He will hold onto it for a while!

Anonymous said...

@Anon - re: between Streets of Buckhead and Waldorf. It's called The Shops Buckhead Atlanta. Think it changed 7 years ago. Anywho, R2G owns the land, so yeah, you'll be stuck with "a junk furniture shop more suited for Alabama than for a prime lot in fancy Buckhead." Sorry, eminent domain isn't an option for you to do with it as you deem fit. Maybe if you were a shrewd businessman you could own a prime piece of property one day.

Anonymous said...

we were close to buying a sofa set from them a few years ago. I think we ended up picking out some custom made leather piece from somewhere else--but RTG had some good looking, contemporary styled sofas, better looking that a lot of the stereotypical big-puffy styles that are so prevalent. So I think they're doing a good job, should be on anyone's radar if they want contemporary styles at reasonable prices (and 800-1200 for a sofa still isn't dirt cheap).

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