GILROY
– The owner of the Luchessa Avenue furniture store entrenched in
a pending lawsuit with the city is planning to open a second store
in Gilroy in the coming months.
GILROY – The owner of the Luchessa Avenue furniture store entrenched in a pending lawsuit with the city is planning to open a second store in Gilroy in the coming months.
5-Day Furniture Warehouse owner Hai Tran said Friday that renovations are already under way to convert the 40,000-square-foot building on the southeast corner of 10th and Monterey streets into a retail furniture showroom called The Furniture House.
Easily recognizable by its yellow paint matching that of the current 162,000-square-foot 5-Day Furniture Warehouse at 500 E. Luchessa Ave., the new store will be open as early as late September, Tran said.
“I want to put everything with the city behind me and go forward with my business,” said Tran, whose new store will be across the street from Rosso’s Furniture, 6881 Monterey Highway. “I consider the argument between me and the city water under the bridge. I have my employees to look out for.”
Although Tran doesn’t hold a grudge against the city, he has no plans to revoke his lawsuit that will be reviewed by a county judge on Aug. 18.
In the lawsuit, Tran claims the city unfairly tried to prevent 5-Day Furniture from making retail sales at its current warehouse location.
Last year the city granted a business permit to Tran to operate his furniture warehouse at the Luchessa Avenue location which is zoned for industrial use.
The city claims the permit was only for “ancillary” retail use, and ruled later that the store could only be open for sales 12 days a year. Tran said the permit was misleading.
In May when the city began receiving “anonymous” complaints that Tran was operating the warehouse primarily as retail, City Council voted to cut off the store’s retail sales. Tran said the Council’s decision was influenced by his competitors and the fact he is Vietnamese.
Tran is currently in the process of obtaining a business permit for his new store, which is located in a commercially zoned area. He is leasing the building from owner Sig Sanchez.
“You look at Gilroy and it is becoming a huge regional draw,” he said. “Yes we will be close to (Rosso’s Furniture), but there’s enough business out there for us to co-exist. The difference is that now people will see competition, which gives them a choice.”
Mayor Tom Springer, who previously called Tran’s accusations of racism against the Council “idiotic,” and made comments about the store’s honesty, said he is encouraged by Tran’s plans to open a retail store.
“It’s zoned commercial, so there’s no problem,” he said. “I wish him luck at this location.”
The lawsuit against the city does not seek monetary damages but requests that it allow the Luchessa Avenue store to continue with retail sales.
Tran, who owns seven furniture stores and warehouses in the Bay Area and lives in San Martin, said he plans to make retail sales out of both his Gilroy stores if possible. If his suit is unsuccessful, he will use the 5-Day warehouse as storage for his new store and for wholesale purposes.
5-Day attorney Tom Griffin will argue before a judge on Aug. 18 that the city does not understand the store’s overall business model, where the Gilroy operation is but a small part of its parent company’s larger China-to-United States furniture wholesaling operation. In that context, retail sales in Gilroy are ancillary to the company’s overall West Coast sales, Griffin said.
Jolie Houston, the deputy city attorney handling Tran’s suit, did not return calls for this story.
