The store has selected 1.6 acres at Catfish Lake Road. It could open next year.
By JAMES THORNER, Times Staff Writer
Published August 5, 2005
LAND O'LAKES - Leader's Casual Furniture - which calls itself the largest retailer of rattan, wicker and patio furniture in the Southeast - is close to building a showroom at State Road 54 and Catfish Lake Road.
The store has selected 1.6 acres west of Collier Commons Shopping Center, near the AutoZone car parts store. Pending rezoning of the property in September, Leader's could open next year.
Founded in St. Petersburg in 1971, Leader's operates 15 showrooms in south-central Florida, from Orlando and West Palm Beach to Naples and New Port Richey.
The company sells beds, dressers, chairs, dining room tables, entertainment centers, bar stools and other furniture.
Much of it is made overseas of rattan, a woody vine that produces bamboolike poles, and wicker, a thinner plant fiber usually woven for durability.
Company executives were vacationing Thursday and unavailable for comment. According to a company Web site, furniture sales people typically make more than $30,000 a year, managers twice that.
Leader's arrival is a sign that Land O'Lakes and Wesley Chapel, growing by thousands of homes a year, can support home furnishing businesses.
A 35,000-square-foot Rooms To Go is under construction on the northwest corner of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and State Road 56.
A Lowe's home improvement store has reserved a parcel southeast of U.S. 41 and SR 54 in Land O'Lakes. Home Depot has also scoured the area for building sites.
