Z-Interiors store to open in Kaka'ako in spring

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

C.S. Wo & Sons, anticipating that a recent boom in home sales will lead to greater demand for home furnishings, is adding to its local furniture retailing empire with a new Z-Interiors flagship store in Kaka'ako.

C.W. Wo & Sons is building a new flagship Z-Interiors home furnishing store at Queen Street and Ward Avenue. The store, expected to open next spring, will make home furnishings a major aspect of the furniture retailer's operations. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser*

A 23,000-square-foot gallery is scheduled to open in the spring. At a cost of more than $1 million, the project will more than double Z-Interiors business, making the line of contemporary furniture a major C.S. Wo division.

The expansion also is the latest of several projects ratcheting up competition between Hawai'i furniture retailers, who are being encouraged by repeated record monthly sales of new and existing homes.

"We're seeing that there's an opportunity to fulfill that affordable lifestyle contemporary furniture market," said Linda Cezar, C.S. Wo's Z-Interiors division manager.

Robert "Bub" Wo, president of C.S. Wo, said that competition will be intense over the next year.

He noted that a new push from Sears selling bedding, more aggressive advertising from Macy's and a recent expansion by ABC Furniture.

Earlier this fall at Waikele Center, a group of mostly Hawai'i investors opened a 50,000-square-foot Ashley Furniture HomeStore, an outlet supplied by manufacturer Ashley Furniture Industries Inc. of Arcadia, Wis.

Another major competitor, Inspiration Furniture, has delayed building a 110,000-square-foot home and office design center in Honolulu for a year, but expects to start construction this month.

Joett Colgan, a spokeswoman for Inspiration, said the project should be open this time next year with a 50,000-square-foot Inspiration gallery and six other unidentified retail tenants.

Colgan said that leases have been signed with four smaller retailers and that negotiations for two more spaces up to 25,000 square feet are ongoing.

Inspiration's project is on Kapi'olani Boulevard about three blocks from the Z-Interior showroom under construction.

Wo said it was necessary to provide four-year-old Z-Interiors with a stand-alone location with greater exposure to consumer traffic.

Until earlier this year, the Z-Interiors line has been sold inside other C.S. Wo galleries on Beretania Street, in Salt Lake next to the former Costco, on Maui and the Big Island.

In June, C.S. Wo opened a 9,000-square-foot stand-alone Z-Interiors at Ala Moana Center as a test. That store will close in January as part of the plan.

Overall C.S. Wo business — which includes HomeWorld, C.S. Wo Gallery, Furnitureland, Sleepland USA, SlumberWorld and La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries — has increased sales 18 percent and gained market share this year, according to Wo.

He said demand is being driven by strong home purchases as well as the "nesting" trend of people spending more time and money furnishing their homes.

There also was one major departure in the local furniture industry last year when HomeLife Furniture, as part of a nationwide shutdown, closed its stores at the Ala Moana Sears and the Sears distribution center in Pearl City.

C.S. Wo was established in 1909 as a general store on North King Street by Ching Sing Wo. The business moved into furniture retailing by 1942.

The company expanded greatly over the last two decades with a variety of brands, which in the past also included BJ Furniture, Scandinavian Gallery, Basic Concepts and Marsh Furniture Mart.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.