By Emily Ford
eford@salisburypost.com
KANNAPOLIS ó Rug and Home, a home furnishings business with locations in Asheville and Gaffney, bought the old Target store Friday in Cloverleaf Plaza in Kannapolis.
The company will open a combined distribution center, warehouse and retail store in early 2010, chief operating officer Aanchal Agarwal said. Rug and Home will relocate its headquarters to Kannapolis and hire between 40 and 75 employees starting next month, Agarwal said.
The business will spend up to $750,000 retrofitting and upgrading the old Target, Agarwal said.
To help lure the company, Kannapolis City Council on Monday approved an incentive grant that will give Rug and Home an estimated three-year tax break of $9,371.
“We are thrilled with the investment,” City Manager Mike Legg said.
The purchase comes on the heels of news that Ktown Furniture will close four furniture stores in the former Cannon Village.
Rug and Home’s arrival means another empty “big-box” store in Kannapolis has a new use.
“More than anything, reusing a vacant big-box property is the most satisfying of all the positive things that can come out of this,” Legg said. “We’re getting a pretty good track record with this.”
Previously, Harmony Labs bought the old Wal-mart on North Cannon Boulevard, and Artistic Frame purchased the old Terry Products building, a textile facility, in the center of the city.
Rug and Home currently has no warehouse or distribution facility, Agarwal said.
“Everything we bring in now, we must put out immediately,” she said.
Called the Rug and Home Warehouse Outlet, the new location will “give us greater buying power,” Agarwal said.
Work on the 96,000-square-foot property will begin immediately, she said.
Rug and Home is accepting applications for sales associates, managers, stock associates and office help at employment@rugandhome .com.
The company had been looking for a location in the Charlotte area for about a year, Agarwal said. The incentive grant helped her parents, Rakesh and Dolly Agarwal, who own the business, choose Kannapolis, she said.
“The grant helped us to feel a little more welcome into the community,” she said. “We’re going to be an asset to them, and they’re excited to see us come into the area.”
Rug and Home had an “exceptional experience” working with city and county officials, she said, and viewed the Target building and incentive grant as an opportunity.
Expansion during a recession is unusual.
“It has been a tough year for everybody, us included. But we have always had a great entrepreneurial spirit,” Agarwal said. “When an opportunity presents itself, it may not be the best timing, but it’s still a great opportunity.”
Creating jobs, especially during a recession, is good news, said John Cox, president of the Cabarrus Regional Partnership. Cox and his staff worked with Rug and Home and took the incentive grant proposal to local officials.
The Cabarrus Regional Partnership has used incentive grants as an economic development tool nearly 40 times since the late 1990s, Cox said.
Rug and Home will receive an 85 percent break on their property taxes for three years, once the property has been revaluated, Legg said.
“They’re just an outstanding company and really on the upswing,” he said. “They’re growing a reputation for being one of the better home furnishing companies around.”
With customers coming from a 75- to 100-mile radius and the creation of dozens of jobs, Rug and Home leaders hope they will benefit Kannapolis, Agarwal said.