Furniture store in negotiations to take over longtime Merced Best Buy location, says city
After 17 years in business, the Merced Best Buy announced last week it was unable to come to an agreement with its landlord and will be closings its store in March.
Decron Properties, a Los Angeles-based real estate company, owns the Merced Marketplace shopping center Best Buy has resided in since 2003. The company is expected to lease the roughly 30,000 square foot space to another business.
Merced Director of Economic Development Frank Quintero has confirmed that Decron Properties was in negotiations with a furniture store.
City officials have not publicly released the name of the store. According to the website LoopNet, an Ashley Furniture is marked to replace Best Buy once its lease ends March 7. However, it’s still unknown whether negotiations on the property have been finalized, and city officials have not confirmed that information.
The electronics company hopes to open another Best Buy location in Merced before this year’s holiday season, said Best Buy spokesperson Kevin Flannagan.
Quintero said Best Buy has not reached out to the city for assistance in locating a new property.
He did note, however, that several developers are well aware that Best Buy is in the market for a potentially smaller property than its long-time Merced residence. Multiple developers have reached out to the company, he said.
Merced Marketplace will soon see additional changes. LoopNet shows Party City is in lease negotiations for the current Pier 1 space, and Work World for the building adjacent to Big 5 Sporting Goods.
This story was originally published February 3, 2020 at 3:47 PM.
