Gabberts will leave Galleria as HOM builds new Bloomington flagship
The megacenter will house its three brands in one spot
By John Ewoldt, Star Tribune, Feb 2019
HOM Furniture will build a flagship megastore in Bloomington to house all three of its brands — HOM Furniture, Gabberts and Dock 86 — by late next year.
The development means Gabberts will exit the Galleria in Edina, a spot where it has been for 60 years, and move to the site in Bloomington near the intersection of interstates 494 and 35W.
The HOM store now at that Bloomington site will be razed to make way for a new 206,000-square-foot structure. The new complex will resemble one that the company has operated for several years in Little Canada.
“We’re having a lot of success with the synergies from the three stores in Little Canada since 2015,” said Rod Johansen, chief executive of HOM. “We anticipate the Bloomington location to be our new flagship and the largest in size and volume.”
The Coon Rapids-based company said it will begin a liquidation sale on Wednesday at the Bloomington HOM, which is expected to close in early April.
The new Gabberts showroom, which will have its own entrance, will be two stories and larger than the existing store in Edina. A two-story HOM store and single-level Dock 86 will share an entrance but will be separate stores. The Bloomington flagship will be about 40,000 square feet larger than the Little Canada location.
The interior and exterior design were developed by RSP Architects of Minneapolis and Archnet of Stillwater. Benson Orth Associates of Golden Valley is the general contractor.
Johansen is still considering plans for another HOM retail concept in the Galleria Gabberts space. “We may put something else in there,” he said. “We can stay there if we want. We have options to go beyond our lease.”
The new structure between I-494 and American Boulevard is the site of the first store, a Waterbed Room, opened by Johansen brothers Rod and Wayne in 1980.
Gabberts, founded by Don Gabbert in 1946 in downtown Minneapolis, moved to its Edina location in 1959 and eventually had the Galleria shopping center built around it in 1976. It was purchased by HOM in 2008.
HOM has 17 locations in the Upper Midwest. Its last location opened in Brooklyn Center in December, and the next location will debut in Wausau, Wis., in the spring.
