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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowCliqStudios, the nation’s largest online retailer of semi-custom kitchen cabinets, said Thursday morning that it plans to invest $5.1 million in a new design studio that it opened this week in downtown Indianapolis—an expansion that is expected to create 200 jobs by 2020.
The studio, at 251 North Illinois St., is the company’s first design studio outside of Minnesota. Employees housed in the 10,000-square-foot space will work remotely with clients across the nation to design kitchens.
CliqStudios is a subsidiary of Minnetonka, Minnesota-based Wayzata Home Products, which manufactures CliqStudios cabinets at a 1.5-million-square-foot factory in Connersville that opened in 2014 and is expected to employ 309 workers by the end of 2018.
“CliqStudios sought out Indianapolis as the location of our first design studio outside of Minnesota because we were attracted to the high quality of job applicants as well as the number of schools offering programs in interior design and kitchen design,” Joy Schmelzer, vice president of customer experience at CliqStudios, said in a statement. “We were impressed with how supportive the community has been of our initiative to bring jobs and look forward to continued partnerships to grow and develop our team in Indiana.”
Founded in 2010, CliqStudios sells cabinets factory direct nationwide through its website, CliqStudios.com. The company promotes its products and design services through social media, home and lifestyle magazines and television, including HGTV.
Most of the new jobs will be for kitchen designers who will work with homeowners to plan and design kitchen construction or remodeling projects. Positions are expected to offer average salaries that are more than 40 percent higher than the state’s average salary of about $45,000.
“The internet age has empowered consumers to seek out ways of truly customizing their living spaces,” Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said in a statement. “CliqStudios has embraced this trend, and is investing in the future of custom kitchen cabinetry solutions.”
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered CliqStudios up to $1.8 million in tax credits and up to $200,000 in training grants based on its job-creation plans. The incentives are performance-based, meaning the company is not eligible to claim them until workers are hired.
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