Arhaus Furniture Opens Another Extra Large Showroom As It Moves Closer To Emulating The RH Real Estate Strategy

Arhaus Furniture ARHS 0.00%↑ recently opened its 2nd extra large showroom in the last 12 months.

The newest Arhaus showroom opened last month in a 35,000 square foot former Crate & Barrel store at the Village of SouthPark in Charlotte, NC.

Arhaus invested over $13 million to build out the new Charlotte space which is nearly 3x the size of one of its average showrooms.

The extra large showroom provides expanded display areas, complimentary interior design services and a “design-forward setting” for clients to experience the Company’s product offering.

Arhaus Is Opening More “Extra Large” Showrooms

The new extra large showroom in Charlotte is not a brand new location for Arhaus.

Instead it is a relocation of the ~10,000 square foot store that Arhaus had opened ~5 years ago in the nearby SouthPark Mall.

It also is not even the chain’s largest showroom.

Arhaus opened that space just last Fall in the Old Town area of Pasadena, CA.

At ~40,000 square feet the Pasadena store is the largest Arhaus showroom in the Company’s history.

And, like the high profile repurposed Crate & Barrel space in Charlotte, the Arhaus showroom in Pasadena is a repurpose of prominent 2nd generation real estate.

It is located in a two story building in the heart of Old Town Pasadena that was previously home to Forever 21 and, before that, a small-format Saks Fifth Avenue department store.

But the art deco-style building—which features an iconic 47-foot tower—dates back to 1925 when it opened as a grand auto service center for Penn Oil & Supply

This unique property required a custom design and buildout rather than the replication of an existing Arhaus showroom format.

The extra large size of the Pasadena showroom also elicited questions of Arhaus executives during the furniture retailer’s Q4 2025 earnings call earlier this year.

Arhaus CEO John Reed commented that the Pasadena store was likely a “one off” project though he noted that the Company is using the expansive showroom to test many initiatives that would not likely have been possible with a smaller store.

On that earnings call Reed denied that Arhaus has plans to add more 40,000 square foot (or larger) stores in the future.

But even Reed’s own words left some uncertainty on the topic, particularly when he was asked a question about the size—and uniqueness—of its showrooms:

“We’re so flexible. And depending on the markets, we can go from 14,000 to 40,000 square feet, and they all work, and they’re all profitable. So we love our model. It’s not just here’s your standard box. It has to be this big sort of thing. And so we’re learning a lot from both ends, the smaller size and the large ones.”

Is Arhaus Replicating the RH Real Estate Trajectory And Model?

The size of these new Pasadena and Charlotte showrooms brings up another interesting question:

Is Arhaus attempting to replicate the “gallery” model of one of its key competitors—upscale furniture and home furnishings retailer RH?

After all RH RH 0.00%↑ has employed a similar real estate trajectory:

Start out with relatively small spaces in many markets and then relocate into much larger "gallery" spaces, often in repurposed, 2nd generation real estate.

Now RH galleries are some of the most unique environments in physical retail with expansive product display areas, design services and even other features like bars and restaurants.

They are located in prominent, upscale locations and are designed to elevate, highlight and promote the RH product assortment and provide memorable experiences for customers.

While many galleries are newly constructed properties, RH has completed adaptive reuses of several historic buildings to secure specific, high profile sites.

Like RH’s repurpose of the iconic Boston Society of Natural History building which dates back to 1863 and is one of the oldest properties in Boston’s Back Bay.

After serving as the Museum of Natural History for decades, the building was repurposed in the 1940s for retail use and occupied by department store operators for decades afterward.

Until 2013 when RH completed extensive interior and exterior renovations of the historic property and repurposed it as its Boston gallery.

Three years ago RH also opened a gallery in another iconic historic building:

The Bethlehem Steel Building in San Francisco’s Pier 70 shipyard that was originally built in 1917.

RH restored the 80,000 square foot, neoclassical building and converted it into a unique retail destination.

The property not only serves as an RH gallery but also is home to other amenities such as The Palm Court Restaurant and a Rooftop Park with views of the San Francisco skyline and Bay Bridge.

But perhaps RH’s most unique adaptive reuse project is its Indianapolis-area gallery that opened in 2023:

In the repurposed former home of real estate developer Christel DeHaan.

The estate home, which was built to resemble a Palladian-style villa, has over 60 rooms and overlooks a private lake on a ~150 acre property

The former residence-turned-RH gallery is 42,000 square feet and includes indoor and outdoor amenities as well as an on-site restaurant.

Where Arhaus Showrooms Are Similar To—And Different From—RH Galleries

The new expanded Arhaus showrooms are still not quite as large as most RH galleries.

They are also—for the most part—not located in high profile properties and do not include in-store dining options.

At least not yet.

But the size and locations of these new Arhaus showroom in Pasadena and Charlotte make them more similar to an RH gallery than other Arhaus sites.

They may, in fact, be the first step toward Arhaus reshaping its real estate strategy in the model of RH.

Which means that more large Arhaus showrooms may also be on tap for other historic buildings in high profile locations.

After all Arhaus is dedicated to making showroom browsing an attraction and a great experience for its customers.

The Company believes that its showrooms are the “front door to [its] omnichannel experience” which create “immersive environments where clients fully engage with our brand, our product and our designers.”

CEO Reed has also has a view that “retail is theater and [our] stores should be a place for customer to come and get inspired.”

That is similar to the vision of RH CEO Gary Friedman that retail stores are a stage where customers can get inspired.

Not surprisingly both companies have invested heavily in building out their retail footprint in recent years.

Over the past 5 years RH has added more than a dozen new galleries and entered key international markets.

Arhaus has also expanded its showroom footprint by more than 50% since 2019 to 108 showrooms at present—with plans to expand further.

Which is important for the Company’s growth since ~90% of Arhaus sales come from clients that live within 50 miles of one of its showrooms.

But future Arhaus showrooms may not copy all elements of an RH gallery.

Like, for instance, the onsite restaurants and other amenities—like wine bars and manicured gardens—that are now common in new RH galleries.

In other words, Arhaus might employ many elements of the RH real estate model as it expands and enlarges its showrooms and store network.

But it is likely to keep the focus on the furniture and furnishings.