Ashley Furniture Homestore Opens in Central New Jersey

NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. January 5, 2006 Ashley Furniture HomeStore has opened a 54,000-square-foot showroom at 3730 Route 1 North in North Brunswick. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday, January 18, 2006.

The showroom is certain to inspire the decorator within all of us, said Will Schafer, owner and operator of the North Brunswick store. From the moment you enter, you will notice the incredible atmosphere and beautiful room settings filled with countless accessories.

The store features floor-to-ceiling fireplaces, fountains, museum ceilings, a home office department, a Sealy® bedding department and more than 300 living rooms, bedrooms and dining room displays.

The HomeStore also features a Kids Korner, where children can try out a wide selection of youth furniture, such as desks, bunk beds and dressers.

To make the shopping experience even more pleasant for both kids and parents, the HomeStore also offers a video arcade and large-screen televisions, showing kid-friendly films that keep the little ones busy as their parents peruse the expansive showroom.

Schafer is the latest of three generations of furniture storeowners in New Jersey. He also owns & operates Furniture Showplace stores in Linden and in Woodbridge. In 2001, he was awarded Retailer of the Year by the Metro Furnishings Association of New Jersey.

We are extremely excited to be a part of the Ashley Furniture HomeStore expansion across the nation, Schafer said. My family has been doing business in New Jersey for over 75 years; we have never had anything this exciting to offer. Our customers are not going to believe that such a wide selection of quality and beautiful home furnishings can be so affordable through Ashley Direct Prices.

Ashley Furniture HomeStores exclusively sell furniture from Ashley Furniture Industries, Inc., the largest furniture brand in the United States. Established in 1945, Ashley now has more than 200 HomeStores throughout North America, offering one of the most complete furniture lines in the industry.

The showroom is part of a 166,000-square-foot retail structure that Kaplan Companies of Highland Park renovated into a showroom and a warehouse. The 18.5-acre site, at Route 1 and Black Horse Lane, had been owned by Leggett & Platt, Inc., which used the warehouse to manufacture mattress components.

This has been a great opportunity for Kaplan Companies to convert a run-down industrial building into an amenity that will attract shoppers from throughout the region, said Jason Kaplan, president of Kaplan Companies. I am pleased we had the opportunity to overhaul a building along the Route 1 corridor into a quality one-stop source for furniture shoppers.

For more information, please log onto www.ashleyhomestores.com