Gallery Furniture officially broke ground June 3 on a new location along the Grand Parkway in The Market at Long Meadow Farms. County officials and project stakeholders gathered near the master-planned community of Long Meadow Farms to help welcome the new business.

"It is an honor to be in this community," said Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, founder and owner of Gallery Furniture. "We have been looking forward to it for several years, and it is finally time."

Situated on more than 100 acres, the furniture store is expected to feature a 165,000-square-foot showroom, an indoor play area for children and a full-service restaurant featuring products from area vendors and farms.

"We are excited about featuring all the local products we can," said McIngvale's daughter, Laura McIngvale Brown, who owns Vince Young's Steakhouse in Austin along with her husband Phillip Brown. "[The menu] is going to locally sourced with classic Texas cuisine from around the area."

In addition, the Gallery Furniture location will dedicate space where residents of The Brookwood Community—a community for disabled adults—will be able to showcase their products.

"We are going to have a special place here," Precinct 4 Commissioner James Patterson said. "But what the McIngvale family is doing with the Brookwood Community is truly special."

The store is expected to hire about 150 people, and McIngvale said he wants to hire locally with a focus on employment opportunities for veterans.

Fort Bend County will receive a $0.01 sales tax collection from Gallery Furniture's business, which Patterson said is expected to help fund several road projects to improve mobility in the area surrounding the Grand Parkway as development continues.

McIngvale said he looks forward to building a strong relationship with the community, including the more than 3,000 residents of Long Meadow Farms and surrounding area, through a variety of services and events.

"We like to call it 'capitalism with a cause," he said. "We are here to make money, but we are also here to give back to the community."

The new location at 7301 W. Grand Parkway South, Richmond, will be the third location Gallery Furniture has opened in Houston since its first store opened at 6006 I-45, Houston, in 1981.