Business

For Conroe-area residents furnishing a new home, replacing a well-worn sofa or simply trying to decide whether a mattress really feels as comfortable as it looks online, another major furniture showroom is headed to the Interstate 45 corridor.

A state project filing lists a new Ashley HomeStore at 11500 Interstate 45 S. in Conroe, with plans calling for a 65,000-square-foot, ground-up retail furniture store. The privately funded project carries an estimated construction cost of $10 million, with work scheduled to begin Sept. 14, 2026, and reach completion June 24, 2027, according to the filing.

The project is notable not simply because of its size. Furniture is one of those purchases for which the debate between shopping online and walking through a showroom is still very much alive, and Ashley itself has increasingly built its business around offering customers both options.

Ashley already has a presence in Conroe

The planned development would not introduce the Ashley name to Conroe for the first time.

Ashley currently lists a Conroe store at 2804 Interstate 45 N. in Conroe Marketplace, where customers can shop furniture, mattresses, patio collections and Ashley Luxe merchandise.

The new project, however, is substantial in its own right. At 65,000 square feet, the proposed store would provide enough space for the kind of room-scale displays that have long been central to furniture retail — sofas arranged as living rooms, dining tables shown with coordinated seating, bedroom collections assembled together and mattresses available for customers to try before committing to a purchase.

The architectural filing does not specify what will happen to Ashley’s existing Conroe location once the new store is completed, so it would be premature to characterize the project as either a replacement or a second permanent Conroe store.

What is clear is that Ashley is preparing to make a sizable investment along one of Montgomery County’s busiest commercial corridors.

From a small furniture company to a global brand

Ashley’s history stretches back more than eight decades, although the company recognizable to shoppers today took shape through several stages of expansion.

According to the company’s historical timeline, Arcadia Furniture Corporation was formed in Wisconsin in 1970 and initially produced occasional tables. In 1976, Arcadia Furniture Corp. and Ashley Furniture Corp. merged to become Ashley Furniture Industries, with corporate operations moving to Arcadia, Wisconsin. The company later expanded into bedroom furniture, dining furniture, upholstery and leather products before opening its first Ashley HomeStore in Anchorage, Alaska, in 1997.

Ashley says it has since grown into the world’s largest furniture manufacturer, employing more than 35,000 people globally and maintaining more than 30 million square feet of manufacturing and distribution capacity. The company says its products reach 155 countries.

Its retail network has also grown considerably. Ashley reports more than 1,000 stores worldwide, while its corporate history states the retail network has surpassed 1,100 locations globally.

Part of what distinguishes Ashley from many furniture retailers is the degree to which manufacturing, distribution and retail exist under the same broader corporate umbrella. Ashley Furniture Industries manufactures furniture, Ashley Distribution Services handles logistics, and Ashley Global Retail operates Ashley-branded stores and the company’s online retail business. Ashley says it also supplies furniture to thousands of independent retail partners internationally.

What shoppers can typically find at Ashley

Ashley has expanded far beyond the occasional tables associated with its early history.

Today, its assortment spans living room furniture, sofas, sectionals, recliners, bedroom collections, dining sets, home office furniture, mattresses, outdoor furniture, rugs, lighting, storage, décor and children’s and baby furniture. Its mattress offerings also include outside brands such as Tempur-Pedic, Sealy, Purple and Stearns & Foster alongside Ashley-branded products.

That broad selection helps explain why Ashley stores tend to occupy relatively large retail footprints. A furniture showroom is selling something quite different from what a traditional shelf-based retailer does: shoppers often want to understand the scale of a sectional, sit at a dining table, inspect upholstery or compare mattress firmness before deciding whether something belongs in their home.

And despite the enormous growth of e-commerce, there is evidence that physical stores still matter.

Furniture shopping is increasingly digital — but the showroom has not disappeared

Online furniture shopping has become a major business in the United States. Statista estimated that the U.S. furniture e-commerce market generated more than $120 billion in revenue in 2025, making the United States the world’s largest furniture e-commerce market. Its research also reported that 31% of U.S. consumers were buying household furniture online on a monthly basis in the referenced consumer data.

The broader retail economy tells a similar story about the growth of digital shopping. U.S. Census Bureau figures show e-commerce accounted for 16.1% of total U.S. retail sales in 2024, up from 15.3% in 2023. That means online shopping now represents a significant share of American retail spending, but most retail sales still occur through other channels.

Furniture stores themselves remain a sizable brick-and-mortar industry. Census Bureau data show U.S. furniture stores recorded approximately $71.4 billion in sales in 2023.

For consumers, each way of shopping offers different advantages.

Online furniture shopping can make it easier to compare hundreds of styles, dimensions and prices without driving from store to store. Reviews, filters, room-planning tools and home delivery have also made purchasing large items online far more practical than it was a decade ago.

But furniture presents challenges that photographs cannot always solve. A sofa's firmness, a fabric's texture, a dining chair's comfort or the true scale of a sectional inside a room can be difficult to judge through a screen.

That helps explain why major furniture retailers increasingly treat online and in-store shopping as complementary rather than competing experiences. Ashley itself encourages customers to shop either way and maintains both a large e-commerce operation and an extensive showroom network.

For many households, the actual shopping journey now falls somewhere in between: researching furniture online, checking dimensions and reviews, then visiting a nearby furniture store to see a short list in person before making a final decision.

A large retail investment along Conroe's I-45 corridor

For Conroe, the planned Ashley store also adds another large commercial project to the Interstate 45 corridor that connects Conroe, The Woodlands and communities throughout southern Montgomery County.

Furniture stores are particularly tied to residential activity. New homeowners need dining tables, beds and sofas; growing families replace or add furniture; and established homeowners periodically renovate rooms or outdoor spaces. A sizable showroom investment therefore arrives in a market where retailers are competing not only for online clicks but also for shoppers who still want somewhere nearby to experience major purchases before bringing them home.

Construction plans currently call for work to begin in September 2026, with completion targeted for June 2027. As with any construction filing, schedules can change as development progresses.

For now, the filing provides an early look at what could become one of the larger new furniture showrooms in the Conroe area — and another example of how traditional retail is adapting rather than disappearing as shoppers move more of their buying journey online.

My Neighborhood News will continue following the Ashley Conroe project as construction progresses and additional details about the store, opening timeline and future of the existing Conroe location become available.

By Tiffany Krenek, My Neighborhood News 

Tiffany Krenek has been on the My Neighborhood News team since August 2021. She is passionate about curating and sharing content that enriches the lives of our readers in a personal, meaningful way. A loving mother and wife, Tiffany and her family live in the West Houston/Cypress region.