Dec. 6, 2021

This paid piece is sponsored by Journey Group.

It won’t be long before the headquarters of Furniture Mart USA has doubled in size, which is clear already when you see the footprint of the new addition next to the original half of the north Sioux Falls building.

Ultimately, the headquarters along 60th Street North east of Minnesota Avenue will reach 600,000 square feet, including 200,000 square feet of additional warehouse space and an additional 100,000 square feet for retail use.

In the meantime, though, furniture keeps arriving and departing daily – and both the company and the project’s construction manager at risk are determined to keep it that way.

“We’ve been able to function completely as normal,” said Troy Eichmann, Furniture Mart’s chief operating officer.

“Productivity has actually increased because not only have we kept everybody working but we added staff because of increased demand and had more productivity along the way.”

Journey Group is tackling the project from multiple angles to keep it on track and allow Furniture Mart to remain fully operational.

Instead of removing the whole wall between the old side and the new addition or creating a couple of large openings, “what we landed on was making big enough openings in order to function efficiently but small enough to avoid structural obstruction,” said Seth Lukonen, Journey’s project manager.

“They’re operating the exact same way they were a year ago. The intent is to avoid any constraints in their productivity that could impact their operations. We’re working at night and over the weekends to get things done without impacting delivery dates. People are waiting for furniture, and the last thing we want to do is inhibit their production.”

Inside the warehouse, “fractions of inches matter,” Eichmann added. “It’s a game of inches. Our pickers come and go through the aisles, and what we’re creating with the addition is a mirror of what we have. So we spent months making sure we got the racking portion right and the picking and put-away procedures right.”

There are 43 rack lanes that forklifts run up and down, bringing furniture to loading zones.

“The intent is we’ll add footage for their racking seamlessly,” Lukonen said.

About 90 percent of the openings are cut for the warehouse addition, and steel is in place for those openings. The steel itself also presented a challenge. It was ordered earlier than normal to keep the project on schedule.

“I have to give them credit. They’ve been creatively sourcing materials, even down to buying PVC pipes early when they found a good price on them,” Eichmann said.

Lukonen and the Journey team track material availability continually and update Furniture Mart on supply chain availability regularly.

“We’re calling suppliers every week to get updates. What wasn’t an issue last year or six months ago or three weeks ago suddenly can be, so we want the latest information from vendors and suppliers so the schedule stays on track,” Lukonen said.

“It’s something we’re always working on in the background and did before COVID, but it really shines through when we order well before we need something now. We can’t just assume we can run out to get materials. We need to be thinking ahead and order to have availability in case of a delay.”

Journey has started installing roofing and pouring concrete, with the plan of handing over the warehouse to Furniture Mart in early February.

“And then we’ll start the heavy work of putting racking in it. It’ll take a few months to complete that finalization, and we’ll do that while they’re finishing the new storefronts,” Eichmann said.

Rendering by Architecture Incorporated

Journey is working from north to south, and the retail storefronts will be constructed last, with the whole project scheduled to be done by late spring or early summer.

“That was purposeful on their part, so we’re able to use the warehouse before the store because what we really, really need right now is more storage space,” Eichmann said. “I can’t commend or thank them enough. There’s always bumps along the way, but we’ve been finding creative solutions to smooth those out and stay on track.”

Furniture Mart selected Journey for the project “as a function of their reputation,” he continued. “They have great communication, service and a great network of subcontractors they work with, so they kind of had it all. And we talked to some of our contemporaries who have worked with them and got strong personal recommendations.”

The approach Journey is taking both to keep work on schedule and allow Furniture Mart to keep up with its historically high demand is a winning combination, Eichmann added.

“They really dug in and made our stress level go way down. They work alongside you every step, and not every contractor does,” he said. “This is our first time working with them. It won’t be our last.”