SCHERTZ — The ribbon was cut Thursday on the Lack’s Home Furnishings distribution center, officially opening up what is now one of the largest buildings in Comal County.
The 308,000 square-foot behemoth is situated inside the Schertz city limits just south of New Braunfels, on the Schwab Road exit off Interstate 35. The massive center will become the hub of the furniture chain’s distribution efforts and could create as many as 300 jobs in the county.
“It’s very exciting for us,” said President and CEO Melvin Lack. “It will allow us to combine our facilities, and allow us to center here and distribute to our stores throughout Texas.”
The racks to store goods in the warehouse stack nearly four stories high, stretching for abut two football fields from end to end. The facility itself is more than double the size of the company’s two existing distribution centers in the state, both of which will be rendered somewhat obsolete now that the Schertz center is operational.
“It allows us as a company to grow,” Lack said. “We’ve been somewhat frozen. Both of our current warehouses are full, and while they’re turning very quickly, we just couldn’t receive goods and get them out fast enough. This distribution center is two and a half times the combined space of all our existing (warehouse) facilities.”
Both city and county leaders looked forward to the possible economic benefit of having the chain’s largest distribution center in their own backyard.
“This is a great thing for the City of Schertz,” said Schertz Mayor Hal Baldwin.
Texas’ largest furniture retailer broke ground on the facility in 2006.
“The nice thing is to see a dream fulfilled,” Lack said. “It really is exactly as we envisioned it. It’s exactly what we wanted it to be, and it’s really going to make a difference.”
