Another landmark Villages’ business will soon be in a new set of (non-Villages) hands.
City Furniture plans to put its stores in space now occupied by 14,000-square-foot Southern Lifestyles at Lake Sumter Landing and the 40,000-square-foot Showcase Direct showroom in the La Plaza Grande shopping center.
For years, Villages have turned to Southern Lifestyles and its more recently redubbed “Showcase Direct” store for furniture for their Villages’ “dream homes.”
The name has been stripped off the store at La Plaza Grande and the windows have been papered over.
The new City Furniture La Plaza Grande store should be open by mid-November. The Lake Sumter Landing store will reopen and be rebranded after that.The stores will employ a total of 52 people and it is said that existing employees will have an opportunity to apply for those jobs.
The Villages furniture stores have been managed for years by Lori Resmondo.
City Furniture has 15 stores in South Florida.
This continues a business ownership trend in The Villages which has gone on for the past several years. The popular Villages’ Wellness Center was sold a few years ago to MVP Athletic which operates a facility in La Reina building in Spanish Springs Town Square and in November will open a new facility in Brownwood. Villages Transportation was sold to Debbie Laufersky a few years ago and since going “private” has struggled to maintain market share and shuttered it Spanish Springs office. Other Villages institutions such as Villages Insurance have also been turned over to private entities in recent years.
