Floor & Decor opens in former Target store in Commack

Fast-growing retailer Floor & Decor opened its second store on Long Island — and in New York State — Tuesday in most of a former Target space in Commack.

The Atlanta-based flooring chain also is planning at least two more large Long Island stores, in Bohemia and Garden City, according to real estate and town representatives. Its other Long Island store is in Farmingdale.

The Commack location is a 95,000-square-foot warehouse store and design center, the retailer said in a statement.

The new store will employ about 50 full- and part-time workers at 4 Henry St. in the Commack South Shopping Center, according to Floor & Decor Holdings Inc.

"We are excited to introduce both professional customers, as well as homeowners, to our one-stop solution for their flooring needs with an extensive selection of in-stock, trend-right flooring options," Kirk Zinner, the new store’s chief executive merchant, said in the Floor & Decor statement.

The retailer declined Newsday’s request for comment.

Other tenants in the Commack South Shopping Center include Costco, ShopRite and sister stores Homesense and HomeGoods.

The 143,000-square-foot Target in Commack, which opened in 2002, was one of six "underperforming stores" in five states that Minneapolis-based Target Corp. closed in February 2019.

(Target still has a Commack store, at 98 Veterans Memorial Hwy., that is 3.5 miles away from the one it closed.)

The remainder of the former Target space in Commack, about 48,000 square feet, is still vacant, said Peter Cosentino, a principal at Cosentino Realty Commack. The realty company owns the shopping center through an affiliate, PJ Venture.

"We have some plans that we’re working on," said Cosentino, who added that the flooring store would complement the home décor stores in the shopping center.

Gym chain Life Time had planned to take over all of Target’s former space with a new $35 million resort-style fitness center but dropped those plans last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a PJ Venture official told Newsday in November.

Founded in 2000, Floor & Decor sells hard-surface flooring, such as tile, wood and stone, as well as related tools and accessories.

The flooring chain had 140 warehouse stores and two design studios in 32 states as of April 1.

The home improvement industry has fared well during the pandemic, as people stuck at home due to health concerns and remote work have been sprucing up.

Floor & Decor opened seven new warehouse stores in the first quarter. That’s "more than double the three new warehouse stores we opened in the first quarter of fiscal 2020. For the full year, we still expect to open 27 new warehouse stores, an increase of 20.3% from 2020," Floor & Decor’s chief executive officer, Tom Taylor, said in May in a quarterly earnings report.

The chain is entering new markets, such as Connecticut, where the retailer opened its first two stores in the state this year.

Floor & Decor entered the New York State market for the first time in 2018, when it opened an 80,000-square-foot store in Farmingdale.

The chain plans to open at least two more Long Island stores. One is planned for Stewart Plaza, on Stewart Avenue in Garden City, Brixmor Property Group, the Manhattan-based company that owns the shopping center, told Newsday in November.

The other is slated for Kmart’s former space on Sunrise Highway in Sayville Plaza in Bohemia.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.