A regional retailer that specializes in outdoor furniture and hot tubs has opened in the Annapolis Towne Centre, filling a space previously occupied by another outdoor furniture retailer.
Offenbachers Home Escapes opened Friday in a 16,000-square-foot location previously held by Great Gatherings. Offenbachers sells hot tubs, outdoor furniture, fire pits and backyard swim spas, as well as pool tables, ping pong tables, dart boards, foosball tables, air hockey tables, poker tables, bars and barstools.
Eric Stalzer, a spokesperson for the Virginia-based company, said Annapolis is the chain’s third location. It has eight employees. Another store is in development in Virginia.
The expansion comes as coronavirus restrictions on travel and entertainment have focused homeowners with means on improving their living space. Stalzer said sales at the company stores in Herndon, Virginia, and Rockville are 40% higher over last year.
Restrictions on the number of customers allowed in retail spaces at once aren’t a concern for the company because of the size of the space, Stalzer said.
“With the size of our store, we quite frankly don’t have that problem … At any given time we have 30 or 40 people in the store, ” he said.
Founded in 1972 by Karl Offenbacher, the company was purchased by Home Escape by Spas East owners Alex Ikenson and Dave Cintorino five years ago. They opened their company in the early 1980s.
They merged nine smaller locations for the two companies in Maryland and Virginia into the Herndon and Rockville showrooms.
Their new store takes the place of Great Gatherings, a similar retailer that closed all of its locations at the start of the pandemic and then posted a notice on its website in June saying it would not reopen.
Offenbachers Home Escapes is located at Suite 120, 1905 Town Center Blvd. in Annapolis. For information, visit offenbachers.com.
