Toms Price Home opening new flagship showroom in Oak Brook
The fourth-generation owners of Toms Price Home are growing the family business with a new showroom slated to open this summer near the Oakbrook Center mall.
A venerable name in the high-end furniture market, Toms Price will unveil a 32,000-square-foot showroom in Oak Brook to replace the company's Wheaton store. The Bloomingdale-based company is combining two existing retail spaces into one to create a new flagship store just north of a regional shopping mecca.
"The proximity to the Oakbrook Center mall is really what's attractive about this location," Toms Price President Scott Price said. "There's so much traffic and lots of customers and lots of possibilities and potential for business."
The company sold the building that housed its Wheaton store to nearby College Church, a transaction that facilitated the move to Oak Brook, Price said. The Wheaton store closed in March, ending a longtime presence on the edge of the city's downtown.
George Price, who is Scott Price's great-grandfather, and Edwin Toms founded the business in Chicago more than a century ago. The second-generation of family owners established the Wheaton store in 1955 in what was originally a colonial-style house on Front Street.
About 20 years ago, Scott Price's father, David, also considered moving the business out of Wheaton to accommodate an expansion. But the city council provided $1.8 million in tax incentives that helped persuade Toms Price to stay downtown and build a 25,000-square-foot addition.
In Oak Brook, Toms Price will be able to showcase more furniture displays in a more efficient layout, Scott Price said. The one-story showroom will be about 25% larger than the two-story Wheaton store.
"We've got some really beautiful displays of furniture, of one-of-a-kind rugs, a huge design center and studio with all of our fabrics and then also a lighting gallery," said Price, who joined the business in 2003. "So we're trying to be a total home resource with everything from the floor to the ceiling to the walls and all the furniture that's in between."
The showroom is expected to open in June between The Great Escape, an outdoor furniture supplier, and Binny's Beverage Depot at 1500 16th St. Toms Price also plans to celebrate a grand opening in July; a final date has not yet been set.
The move into Oak Brook, the "crossroads of the Chicagoland area," will allow the company to expand its reach, Price said. Within the store, interior designers will work with clients to make custom selections.
"We're excited to be able to serve people from all over the Western suburbs, but also from the city and from the Southern suburbs," he said. "And it'll be kind of a gateway for us into future growth. We see this as a flagship location, hopefully as our largest volume location and something that will do more business in Oak Brook than in Wheaton."