Flooring retailer Floor & Decor plans to open its first Baltimore-area location by midyear in a former Kmart in Parkville.
The retailer, specializing in hard-surface flooring and accessories, signed a lease to take a long-vacant spot in North Plaza Shopping Center. It will fill nearly 86,000 square feet and hire more than 60 full-time and part-time workers, officials with center owner Continental Realty Corp. said Thursday.
The Atlanta-based flooring chain operates nearly 160 stores across 31 states and serves both consumers and general contractors.
The retailer is aggressively expanding throughout the U.S., including Maryland, where it has one store, in Gaithersburg, and Northern Virginia. The company is targeting densely populated areas with older housing stock and remodeling opportunities, said John Meyer, a principal with KLNB, which represented the retailer in the lease deal.
The warehouse-format stores sell tile, wood, stone, laminate and vinyl flooring materials for kitchens, bathrooms and outdoor areas, as well as decorative products and fixtures such as backsplashes, vanities and vanity tops, shower doors, sinks and shower doors. Installation services are available.
“Floor & Decor appeals to many different target audiences and, over the past two years, the home improvement category has ranked among the highest performers in the retail sector,” David Donato, Continental’s chief operating officer, said in an announcement.
The lease signing brings the Safeway-anchored shopping center on Waltham Woods Road to full occupancy, Continental said. Other tenants include Ross Dress for Less, Harbor Freight Tools, The Y in Central Maryland, Chuck E. Cheese, Gabe’s, Five Guys Burgers & Fries, Wockenfuss Candies, Sherwin-Williams and Sally Beauty Supply.