IMC Announces Management Changes
International Market Centers (IMC) announced that Terence Morris has been promoted to Vice President for Gift Leasing. In addition, Vice President of Leasing for Home Décor, Lee Hershberg, expands his role to assume responsibility for leasing at the Las Vegas Design Center (LVDC) in addition to existing responsibility for home décor leasing in Las Vegas and at the International Home Furnishings Center in High Point. In addition to these two changes, which are effective immediately, Jared Worrall joins the Home Décor team as Leasing Director, moving from the furniture side of the business as of August 1, 2015.
“These changes come at an exciting time for Las Vegas Market as we continue to grow and expand the gift and home décor side of our business,” said Dorothy Belshaw, President of Gift & Home Décor for International Market Centers. “ By calibrating key positions within the Gift and Home Décor leasing team we can most effectively support accelerated leasing activity in those categories and drive IMC’s long-term strategic goals. We’ve established a strong talent pool internally that we can draw from to fulfill these new positions, with current employees who are well-prepared for their expanded roles. It’s gratifying to watch.”
With his promotion, Terence Morris will be responsible for managing permanent gift leasing on floors C1, C8, C9, C10 and C11. These floors comprise 560,000 rentable square feet and include such categories as holiday/seasonal/ floral; toy/plush; baby; personal care/fragrance; stationery/publishing; fashion; accessories; trend/novelty; tabletop/decorative accessories; gourmet/housewares; candles; inspirational/religious and handmade/artisanal. Morris, who brings 25 years of direct industry experience with the last two at IMC, also assumes management of temporary tradeshow leasing at Las Vegas Market.
As Vice President of Leasing for Home Décor, Lee Hershberg expands his role to assume responsibility for the LVDC on A1-2 in addition to managing permanent leasing on floors A3-4, B3-4, C3-7 in Las Vegas and International Home Furnishings Center (IHFC) floors 2-4 in High Point. Across both campuses, these floors comprise 1.8 million feet and feature portable lighting; accent furniture; floor coverings; textiles; decorative pillows; wall art; permanent botanicals; garden décor/statuary and window coverings. Hershberg has been with the company since 2008.
Jared Worrall will join the Home Décor team as of August 1 as Leasing Director for four home décor floors in Las Vegas (B3, C3, C4 and C5), which set new precedents in the industry for lifestyle merchandising. With IMC for five years, Worrall will work closely with current director of home décor Boyd Tasker, who is leaving IMC at year-end to pursue new opportunities. Worrall’s strong leasing experience and knowledge of the home furnishings channel will afford IMC the opportunity to develop new synergies between home décor and furniture leasing. In his new role, Worrall will report to Lee Hershberg. Both Hershberg and Morris will report directly to Belshaw.
Both Morris and Hershberg have been instrumental in achieving Las Vegas Market’s strategic evolution into the most comprehensive buying platform for buyers in the western United States. The three-phase plan, which began in 2013, has been marked by the introduction of new product categories such as specialty tabletop, home textiles and lifestyle collections, fashion accessories and artisanal crafts, as well as expansion of existing categories and re-merchandised presentations. Since 2013, Las Vegas Market has experienced dramatic growth in the furniture, home décor and gift product categories, with 850,000 square feet of new and expanded showrooms and more than 1,200 new lines. The transformation and growth in gift and home décor categories resulted in the highest attendance numbers in Las Vegas Market’s nearly 10-year history at the recently-concluded Winter Market, with overall attendance gains of 10% from the previous year, and a colossal 21% jump in attendance in the gift and home décor category.
Highlights of the upcoming Summer Market include a celebration of the Market’s 10-year anniversary, creation of C11 – a new showroom floor for gourmet housewares, tabletop and specialty food, as well as the continuing growth of C5, another new permanent showroom floor for boutique home décor, high-end home textiles and accessories, and the repositioning and reimagining of the Market’s temporary exhibits as The Pavilions at Las Vegas Market, a dramatic, freestanding, climate controlled temporary tradeshow space showcasing some 90,000 net square feet of innovative and emerging gift and home décor resources. Summer Market also will mark the premiere of a casual furniture market in Las Vegas, with 250,000 square feet of permanent showrooms and temporary exhibit space on the 12th and 13th floors in Building C devoted to the casual/outdoor category.
