MONDAY October 4, 2021
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Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
THE MATHIS REPORT
Business owners: Prepare an exit plan
Rooms To Go will turn one of Daily Record two closed stores into an outlet JACKSONVILLE
Heritage Capital Group CEO Don Wiggins says even owners who don’t plan to sell should get ready for the possibility.
Daily Record Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
BY MARK BASCH CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Rooms To Go CEO Jeffrey Seaman said Sept. 30 he expects to decide in 60 days which of the two closed Rooms To Go stores in the Regency and Avenues areas will be converted into an outlet and which will be made available for sale or lease. The new Rooms To Go in The Markets at Town Center replaces both of them. The Markets at Town Center space at 4875 Town Center Parkway is more than the combined space of the two existing stores, The closed Rooms To Go at 11030 Philips Highway near The Avenues mall. The company says one of the two shuttered stores will become an outlet.
Center say the “super showroom” includes Rooms To Go living rooms, bedrooms and dining furniture along with RTG Kids & Patio for children’s and outdoor furnishings. Rooms To Go occupies a renovated former Toys R Us and Babies R Us store that closed in 2018. Through an entity, Seaman bought it Oct. 30 and renovated it. The work included complete interior tenant improvements. At the time, Seaman said Rooms To Go intended to renovate the store as its new concept. In addition to its current furniture line, Rooms To Go added an expanded children’s section and a 9,000-square-foot area for outdoor patio furniture. Seaman said he expects business to be “A-plus.” “We have good stores in Jacksonville now, all three. It’s a very good market for Rooms To Go and I think it will be better with a new store,” Seaman said. “It’s a very steady market SEE MATHIS, PAGE 2
SEE WIGGINS, PAGE 2
JACKSONVILLE
KAREN BRUNE MATHIS EDITOR
The Regency and Avenues locations are closed as the furniture company opens a new showroom in The Markets at Town Center.
If you are a business owner, you may or may not have selling it on your mind. Even if you don’t intend to sell, you will be better off if you prepare for the possibility, said Don Wiggins, CEO of Jacksonvillebased business advisory firm Heritage Capital Group. “Go through and do a formal exit plan,” Wiggins said in a Sept. 30 webinar about selling a company. “It doesn’t matter if you’re going to sell or not,” he said. “All of the things that Wiggins give an outside buyer value give you value.” The webinar title was “Thorny Issues In Selling A Company: Saving Yourself Headaches and Heartaches, and Getting the Best Result in an Uncertain Environment.” One key part of the preparation is determining any issue that might appear to a potential buyer during due diligence. It is better to acknowledge issues upfront than having a surprise the buyer finds when examining the business. “Things are going to come out,” Wiggins said. “Buyers are extremely thorough.” It’s not just business operation issues that could derail a deal. Health issues of the business owner or another key employee
Photos by Karen Brune Mathis
A “We’ve Moved!” sign hangs in the window of the closed Rooms To Go at 9278 Arlington Expressway in the Regency Court Shopping Center in Arlington. The furniture chain also shut its store near The Avenues mall. A new store opened Oct. 2 at The Markets at Town Center.
which were closed last week before the new location opened. The 84,880-square-foot Markets at Town Center store comprises a 73,315-square-foot main floor and 11,565 square feet of mezzanine space. Seaman said the jobs at the two closed stores were moved to The Markets at Town Center location, and Rooms To Go added about 30 more to reach about 65 positions. The Markets at Town Center location is about midway between the Regency store, about 6 miles north, and the Avenues
site, about 8 miles south. Seffner-based Rooms To Go closed the roughly 30,000-square-foot Regency area store at 9278 Arlington Expressway, which was built in 1998, and the 41,000-squarefoot Avenues area store at 11030 Philips Highway, which was developed in 1995 near The Avenues mall. Seaman said Rooms To Go will need 15-20 employees for the outlet store. The two closed stores are owned by Rooms To Go affiliates. Seaman said he has had market interest in both but they had not been on the market. “Now we will take it seriously,” he said. Rooms To Go also operates at 142 Blanding Blvd. in Orange Park. Another entity owns that 30,000-square-foot store, built in 1994. “Orange Park is staying the same,” Seaman said, adding that it was updated a few years ago. Flyers and ads for the “newest state-of-the-art showroom” at The Markets at Town
JaxPort awards $48.8M contract for improvements JaxPort awarded a $48.8 million construction services contract Sept. 27 to Superior Construction Company LLC for terminal improvements. JaxPort said in a news release that its board of directors unanimously approved the contract. The improvements, part of a $72 million capacity expansion, will enable the SSA Jacksonville Container Terminal at Blount Island to accommodate additional containers. JaxPort said the upgrades will allow the facility to accommodate up to 500,000 TEUs (containers) annually, a 150% increase.
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