ML - Vegas Magazine

Vegas - 2015 - Issue 4 - Summer - Art of the City - J.K. Russ

Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.

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From his perch at Las Vegas's World Market Center, Robert Maricich combines visionary leadership with a deep appreciation for great design. The home furnishings industry in North America largely revolves around two places that couldn't be more different: High Point, North Carolina, and Las Vegas, Nevada. Both cities host annual markets—multiday indus- try summits where manufacturers display their products for retailers and designers, who come to see what's now and next. Until 2010, the two markets were in direct competition, but where some saw a rivalry, Robert Maricich recognized an opportunity. Maricich was then president and CEO of World Market Center, the home furnishings behemoth just north of the Strip, where stunning armchairs and designer sofas fill hundreds of thousands of square feet of showroom space. While High Point was the entrenched home and design hub—a man- u fact u r i ng tow n where f u r n it u re ha s been big business since the early 20th century—Las Vegas was the fresh challenger. Maricich imagined them united under common ownership. "In 2010, I real- ized there was this incredible opportunity to buy not only World Market Center," he says, "but also the majority of our largest competitor." With the effects of the recession still reverberat- ing throughout the home furnishings industry, the Vegas-based CEO rallied an investment group, and in 2011 the new International Market Centers spent $1 billion to acquire World Market Center in Las Vegas and 59 percent of the showrooms in downtown High Point, consolidating them within a single organization, with Maricich at the helm. Today, he says, the two markets attract almost completely discrete buyer bases. "If you want to be a seller of furnishings in North America, you need to be in both High Point and Las Vegas." Maricich wasn't born into the upper echelons of the home and design sector. Raised in Great Falls, Montana, he attended Montana State University on a basketball scholarship, graduating in 1972 High Point of the West As one of the home furnishings industry's most visible leAders, RobeRt MaRicich hAs turned vegAs's World mArket Center into A nAtionAl design nexus. by sarah feldberg PhotograPhy by brad swonetz 58  vegasmagazine.com PEOPLE Power Strip

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