NEW HAVEN -Jordan’s Furniture officially broke ground on a new 192,500 square-foot location in the former New Haven Register Building at 40 Sargent Dr. in the city Wednesday morning.
The new store–the sixth to open in New Haven–will open on the Long Wharf because of its proximity to New York and Connecticut.
“We’re on the highway with 150,000 cars going by us every day,” said Eliot Tatelman, president and CEO of Jordan’s Furniture. “We have exposure. We have exit and entrance ramps.”
When it opens this fall, it will include a large furniture showroom and a state-of-the-art entertainment area with a restaurant. Construction of the store will employ 500 tradesmen and once completed, the store will bring over 200 new jobs to the community, according to the city of New Haven.
Jordan’s Furniture is known for combining retail with entertainment, making their stores a destination, much like competitor Ikea, or the Yankee Candle flagship store in South Deerfield, Massachusetts. The stores have indoor features like Beantown, Bourbon Street, IMAX 3D Theaters, a three-level ropes course, Liquid Fireworks, Splash and full-service restaurants.
“We will be putting in an entertainment complex that will be second to none and will wind up, I am sure, in the Guinness Book of World Records,” said a smiling Tatelman, who added that birthday parties and non-profit fundraisers will be regularly staged in the store’s unique entertainment area.
As with their five other stores, the New Haven store will feature a restaurant. “So, if one of the pizza guys want to come in here, we’d love to Pepe’s or somebody like that here,” said Tatelman.
Jordan’s currently has five store locations in Avon, Natick, and Reading, Massachusetts; Nashua, New Hampshire; and Warwick, Rhode Island, one of which is among the highest grossing furniture stores in the Unites States. “It brings over a million people through the doors every year,” said Tatelman.
The store is also known for its community outreach, and that won’t change with the New Haven location. “Checks to the amount of $35 million went back to the public,” said Tatelman of the other stores. He says he’s offering the same deal this year, and in 2016 he says the New Haven store will likely roll out a promotion to entice both Boston and New York fans, much like the 2007 deal that customers purchases would be reimbursed if the Red Sox won the World Series.
Mayor Toni N. Harp was joined by Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson and Eliot Tatelman, president and CEO of Jordan’s Furniture Store, were at this morning’s ground-breaking.
