West Marine to open 50,000-sq.-ft. superstore in Fort Lauderdale

Watsonville, Calif. -- West Marine will open the biggest store in the company's history, a 50,000-sq.-ft flagship in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Due to open by yearend, the store will be twice as big as the company's current largest location and will be focused on serving both local and seasonal boating customers.



"We're designing and building the new Fort Lauderdale West Marine Boating Superstore from the ground up to better serve the customers in this amazing boating market. We believe it will be the world's largest (and hopefully most exciting) boating store, with the largest selection of core for-the-boat products and for-the boater apparel and shoes," said Geoff Eisenberg, CEO, West Marine.



This store is being designed by retail architects Bergmeyer Associates, Boston, in conjunction with the West Marine Visual Merchandise Store Design team. The architect of record and developer of the project is Ft. Lauderdale based Stiles.



The new location will feature an array of in-store experiential features, including a “Megayacht” fly bridge displaying the nation's largest retail presentation of marine electronics and audio systems.



This is the largest of five flagship locations West Marine is opening across the country in 2011. The other four flagships are in the 22,000-30,000 sq. ft. range and are located in: Woburn, Mass. (now open); St. Petersburg, Fla. (now open); North Palm Beach, Fla. (now open); and Honolulu (due to open in early 2012).