Floor & Decor To Debut In NYC With 129K SF Brooklyn Store

Floor & Decor has signed a 129K SF lease as its first foray into New York City. 

The retailer, which sells flooring for homeowners and professionals, will open on the second floor at 850 Third Ave. at Liberty Bklyn in Sunset Park May 6. 

Liberty Bklyn is a 1.3M SF office, industrial and retail complex on the waterfront of the Gowanus Bay developed by Pinnacle Realty and Madison Capital. Floor & Decor’s new store replaces the Bed Bath & Beyond and Buybuy Baby, which closed as part of the retailer’s bankruptcy.

Atlanta-based Floor & Decor operates 221 warehouse-format stores and five design studios across 36 states and has been on a quest toward rapid expansion. In the last quarter, it opened 14 new stores and ended the fiscal year with 31 warehouse store openings, according to the company’s last earnings report.

The company aims to operate 500 stores, with 30 to 35 openings planned for the current fiscal year. 

Even as shoppers' increased spending on home improvement in the early days of the pandemic has slowed, Floor & Decor net sales have continued to grow. It ended 2023 with net sales of $4.4B, up from nearly $4.3B in 2022 and $3.4B in 2021.

Floor & Decor CEO Tom Taylor said the company is changing based on its evolving customer base, including by offering extended hours. The store will be open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays. 

“We remain committed to adapting to changing market dynamics and customer behaviors, however we feel that people always have been and always will be renovating their homes,” Taylor told Bisnow in a statement. 

The flooring chain serves as another example of a landlord backfilling a vacated bankrupt retailer in relatively short order. National vacancy rates are at an all-time low, and retail owners haven't hid their enthusiasm over the opportunity to take back vacated stores and sign new deals at higher rents.