The Las Vegas Market has a cool flash intro going for the upcoming Las Vegas Home Market, Jan 29 – Feb 02 2007.
World Market Center to Celebrate Grand Opening of Building B during January 2007 Las Vegas Market
Market attendees get ready for the world’s biggest party! This high-energy event marks the unveiling of the newest addition at World Market Center — the impressive Building B. This must-attend party kicks Market week into high gear and will deliver the very best that Las Vegas has to offer. Don’t miss a grand opening celebration that the industry will be buzzing about for years to come!
Stunning Building B – a 16-story, $345 million, 1.6 million square foot structure – is on time for its scheduled debut in conjunction with the Winter Las Vegas Market, January 29 through February 2, 2007. At 378 feet tall, Building B is the largest and tallest building in downtown Las Vegas and the tallest furniture mart building in the U.S.
Building B is fully leased to nearly 300 leading manufacturers in the home furnishings industry with the first tenant move-ins scheduled for October. With the opening of the second building, 13 of the Top 25 U.S. furniture manufacturers and importers will be exhibiting at Las Vegas Market.
The functional configuration of Building B incorporates an efficient racetrack corridor floor plan, with the first 10 floors connected by sky bridges to all floors of Building A. The new building houses a year-round Design Center on Floors One and Two; accessories and home accent companies on Floors Three through Five; furniture and bedding companies on floors Six through Fifteen.
The 16th floor features a number of amenities and resources including approximately 20,000 square feet of versatile outdoor and indoor multi-use event space. World Market Center officials are in negotiations with several independent and well-known restaurateurs to determine the best partner to operate the building’s restaurant, which will be open to the general public during non-Market times.
The top floor also houses business offices for industry associations, a fully-equipped media center, an international buyer’s lounge, seminar and meeting space, and additional support services.
In addition, the Western Home Furnishings Association (WHFA) and National Home Furnishings Association (NHFA) will move their Retailer Resource Center to a larger showroom space on the 16th floor of Building B. The 8,300 square-foot showroom will feature a number of resources as well as a larger seminar room that will accommodate 100 people.
Furthermore, Building B offers a number of expanded service amenities and operating efficiencies such as:
- Expanded registration area in the main atrium
- More passenger and freight elevators
- Full-service restaurant and food outlets
- A second internet lounge
- An international buyer’s lounge
Babs Blair, Director of Leasing for World Market Center, said with the opening of Building B, many existing exhibitors have taken advantage of expansion opportunities, explaining, “The overwhelming number of our existing and new tenants want larger showrooms to present new products in demand here.”
The 10 largest showrooms in Building B are 50 percent bigger, on average, than the 10 largest spaces in Building A. Ashley Furniture, for example, is taking approximately 86,000 square feet in Building B – an increase of approximately 66,000 square feet or 343 percent. Between Buildings A and B, Ashley will be the biggest leaseholder at World Market Center with 106,000 square feet of showroom space.
In addition to Ashley’s significant expansion, Building B includes a number of new permanent tenants to World Market Center, including Universal, Progressive, Legacy Classic, Vaughn Bassett, Riverside Furniture, Samuel Lawrence, Douglas Furniture, Nourison Rug Corporation, Murray Feiss, Oriental Weavers, Feizy Rugs, and many more.
This is in addition to a number of tenants who are relocating from Building A to larger spaces in Building B. These include Master Design, Chromcraft Revington, Leggett & Platt, Hamilton & Spill, Best Master, Aspen/Furniture Values International and Uttermost. (See the full tenant roster for Building B.)
World Market Center is an integrated home and hospitality contract furnishings showroom and convention complex on 57 acres near downtown Las Vegas. When completed in 2013, the showroom campus will comprise 12 million square feet in 8 buildings, and be the largest trade show complex in the world
