Floors Today Opens New Location in Florida

West Melbourne, FL, June 10--Miami-based Floors Today, a retail company that sells wood and laminate flooring, opened two weeks ago in a former Eckerd drugstore site in West Melbourne, according to Floridatoday.com. It's the first new tenant for what were four Eckerd stores that became vacant following the drugstore chain's purchase by rival CVS Corp. last year. The speed in which Floors Today -- currently scouting other Brevard County locations to add to its roster of 20 stores -- moved to secure the former Eckerd site on New Haven Avenue, shows that the three remaining Eckerd stores may not be without tenants for long. Claude Moise, manager of the new West Melbourne Floors Today, said customer walk-in traffic has been better than expected. "A lot of it has been because of the sign," Moise said. "And we have a good intersection." John Pace, who heads up Floors Today's marketing department, said the company selected the New Haven Avenue site -- at the intersection of Dairy Road -- because of its high-traffic location. The new Floors Today also is not far from mega-retailers Home Depot and Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse, which also sell flooring products. Pace said Home Depot and Lowe's presence doesn't concern him, if only because they're not specialized, like Floors Today. "We're very, very pleased with our business model," Pace said. Pace said the company is looking to open more Brevard locations, but he wouldn't say if any of the three still-vacant Eckerd stores are part of Floors Today's strategy. "I can't comment on that for competitive reasons," Pace said. A representative from CVS could not be reached for comment on any future plans for the vacant properties. The Eckerd vacancies were the result of Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS purchasing Eckerd in June 2004 for $2.15 billion. In many locations across the United States -- including Brevard -- CVS operated stores near Eckerd operations, including some across the street from one another. Some Eckerd stores became CVS operations, while others closed. Duane Watson, president of Duane Watson Commercial Real Estate on Merritt Island, brokered two of the land deals for new CVS stores prior to its purchase of Eckerd. He believes, for CVS to find tenants for the vacant buildings, the company probably will have to give them a sizable break on rent. "In most cases, CVS will have to subsidize it for tenants," Watson said, adding that the company probably also would restrict the types of tenants it would rent to.