Moving in
Nebraska Furniture Mart to bring massive new store and 700 jobs to Austin suburb
Nebraska Furniture Mart is moving into Cedar Park. The Austin suburb will be the site of NFM's fifth U.S. store, the retailer has revealed.
According to a release, Nebraska-based NFM will anchor a development that will include a 250-room hotel and 30,000-square-foot convention center, at 750 E. New Hope Dr., near U.S. Highway 183A. It's a $400 million+ complex that's being called a "once-in-a-generation" project by local officials.
The project will break ground "as early as 2024," NFM says, and be completed in late 2026.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based company says the Cedar Park store — including retail and warehouse spaces — will encompass 1.2 million square feet and will employ 700 workers. Positions will include managers, sales professionals, customer service specialists, interior designers, and warehouse personnel.
(For scale, the average Ikea is about 300,000 square feet, according to How Stuff Works.)
It will be NFM's second store in Texas behind one in The Colony, north of Dallas, which opened in 2015. (The only other NFMs around the country are in Omaha, Des Moines, and Kansas City, Kansas.)
“The city of Cedar Park and its surrounding communities have a great quality of life, and we are thrilled to be a part of it,” says Tony Boldt, NFM president and CEO, in the release.
NFM is a family-run, fifth-generation company that touts itself as "a one-stop shop for the home," offering furniture, flooring, appliances, and electronics, as well as interior design services, delivery, and installation. Nationwide, NFM employs 4,800 people.
"NFM places a priority on giving back to the community and staff are provided with 40 hours of paid volunteer time off each year," says the release. "In their 86-year history, NFM hasn’t had a single layoff, and they were named a Best Place to Work by Furniture Today in 2021 and 2022."
Cedar Park mayor Jim Penniman-Morin says NFM carefully researched communities across the nation before landing on the city 19 miles northwest of downtown Austin.
"I was very impressed by the thoughtful way that their existing development in north Texas blends the truly local and the truly global into a seamless retail experience," he says, "and I really look forward to seeing how NFM is able to build something just as vibrant and unique here in Cedar Park.”
It's been a big week for Austin-area furniture store news. The NFM announcement comes on the heels of the sad news that famous Austin furniture brand Louis Shanks is going out of business and closing its remaining stores after 80 years in business. A liquidation sale started Thursday, September 21.