The mammoth furniture store, just one piece of the project, is set to open in 2027
By Justin Sayers – Senior Staff Writer, Austin Business Journal
Mar 7, 2025
Omaha-based furniture seller NFM tends to follow a pattern. The company opened a store in Kansas City, Kansas, in 2003, a store in the Colony in the Dallas area in 2015, and it plans to open a new store in Cedar Park in 2027.
That means NFM’s 118-acre CedarView development at 750 E. New Hope Drive will be right in line with the 12-year sequence. Developers are deep into construction of infrastructure at the site, with a Scheels sporting goods store set to open in late 2026, and the NFM and a hotel and convention center in 2027. A groundbreaking for the latter is scheduled for April.
When it’s all said and done, CedarView could include the nearly 300-room hotel and 50,000-square-feet of convention center space — making both slightly bigger than originally planned. There’s also plans for at least 700,000 square feet of warehouse space and 250,000 square feet of retail outside of the massive furniture store in the works. The Scheels is pegged at 240,000 square feet and the NFM store at 1.1 million square feet, which would make it about three times larger than the IKEA store in Round Rock.
“We’re really just looking forward to getting open,” said Jeff Lind, NFM’s chief strategy and development officer. “It’s really fun opening a store. The minute you turn the key on the first day … you’ve opened the door and it lives on and (we) continue to try and improve lifestyles as we go.”
In a recent interview with the Austin Business Journal, Lind provided updates on the project, which is one of the region’s most-anticipated developments. He also detailed his retail vision for the site, noting that the company — NFM stands for Nebraska Furniture Mart — is looking for additional retailers and is working on pad sites.
The Cedar Park City Council approved a development agreement and incentives for the project with CPM Development LLC, which is affiliated with NFM, more than three years ago. The city provided $45 million in incentives for the project, which is forecast to generate $435 million in new tax revenue for Cedar Park in its first 25 years of operation.
Answers have been lightly edited for brevity.
What about the Austin area attracted NFM?
We opened in the Colony, north of Dallas, and we love Texas. Our home base is Omaha, Nebraska, and although Texas is different, they share a lot of the same social conventions — it’s a very polite society, it’s very family-friendly. There’s a lot of things in the greater Midwest, southern Midwest area that just fits really good with our culture. So we started just kind of thinking, “Well, you know, is there another place in Texas we could go?” And, of course, Austin, and the growth that Austin is experiencing, and feeling that it was underserved, was a key decision factor in our call.
Where else were you looking and what pushed Cedar Park over the top?
There were other states, and I would just leave those somewhat anonymous, because we’ll be potentially working on those in the future. But (Cedar Park), I think we were able to meet an incredible city government and professional staff who instantly recognized the value of what we were trying to do, and really showed that they would be tremendous partners in working with us. That was absolutely one of the most key things, the key factor in there, from the mayor, the City Council, the city manager, all the professional staff, just as good a city as you ever want to work with.
What does day-to-day work on this project look like?
Internally, we have a lot of bench-strength building that has been going on. We’ve got a lot of internal processes that we’re working on. But as far as the construction, we are working on some pad site deals. We’ll probably have some announcements of some tenants that are going to be on the development with us here before too long.
What types of tenants are you looking at?
Not so much national. We like to be as differentiated as possible, generally speaking. Not to say that there couldn’t be a very recognizable national chain there. But for the most part the city and us share a vision of kind of doing something that’s a little different than maybe 10 miles down the road.
What is your dream tenant mix?
Primarily retail, restaurant. Maybe there’ll be a little bit of entertainment, but not too heavy in the entertainment.
What has been different about this project than other NFM projects?
From the construction standpoint, we got very lucky with the position of land and the condition of it. Such that, from a geotechnical standpoint — I don’t mean to get technical on the construction side — it’s very nice to be able to basically level out a pad and have it be ready to go versus having to do a lot of surcharging and soil conditioning and slowing down the construction process because of all that.
What have been the biggest challenges?
Gosh, I think costs will probably be the biggest challenge. Construction costs continue to rise, and they’re moderating somewhat now. But when we started talking years and years ago, the costs were much lower on road work and sewers and all that kind of stuff and has elevated somewhat.
How do you explain what an NFM is to someone who doesn’t know?
The biggest thing is, when you talk about NFM, … is really telling people we try and carry basically everything for the home — appliances, flooring, furniture and electronics. We’ll have people that will drive hundreds of miles and bring a horse trailer or have a moving van pick up their stuff or ask us to deliver it. But they’ll come in and buy an entire house full of stuff because of the selection and the service and the inventory on hand. So it’s a very different formula than the other retailers in our categories.
What are you seeking from the business community?
I would say primarily with what I know today, it’s on the leasing side. We’ve got some good contacts and partnerships that we’ve worked with. I said partnerships, just from the standpoint of Scheels wanting to be down here with us, and us wanting to be next to them, and that kind of stuff working out well. … I think primarily at this point, with what we know today, and there’s still some master planning going on, we’re pretty set besides those interested for leasing opportunities.
Click here for the article source.
