After nearly 80 years as one of the country’s largest and most established commercial furniture dealers, New York–based Empire Office has reintroduced itself as Empire & Co., a change that reflects a business that has evolved as it has grown. The rebrand is not a pivot away from office interiors so much as an acknowledgment of what the company has already become: a diversified interiors platform operating across commercial, hospitality and B2B residential markets.
The word “Office,” once a clear descriptor, had become increasingly confining. Empire’s scope now extends far beyond the workplace, and the new name is meant to better capture that reality.
“Diversification is key to resilience in today’s economy,” said Jocelyn Corrigan, COO of Empire & Co. “As the boundaries between the commercial, hospitality and residential sectors become increasingly fluid, we are seamlessly translating our 80 years of workplace expertise to these new verticals.”
Empire’s history makes the evolution easier to understand. Founded in 1946 with its first sale on Wall Street, the company grew alongside the financial services industry, building deep relationships with banks, law firms and corporate clients headquartered in Manhattan. Over time, as those clients expanded nationally, Empire followed them, becoming an early example of a dealer with a truly national footprint.
But that concentration also revealed risk. Economic downturns — particularly those tied to the financial sector — prompted Empire’s leadership to think more broadly about stability and long-term growth. Under third-generation ownership, the company began a deliberate diversification strategy that included acquisitions in healthcare and higher education, as well as geographic expansion up and down the East Coast.
Corrigan, who has been with the company for 16 years, describes diversification as a recurring theme rather than a recent reaction to the market. Each major disruption, from market crashes to COVID, reinforced that long-term resilience comes from serving multiple markets, multiple geographies and multiple client types.
That thinking accelerated during the pandemic. While Empire entered COVID already diversified on the commercial side, the uncertainty surrounding office usage and corporate real estate prompted another question. Where else could the company’s expertise apply?
The answer emerged unexpectedly through a client request. A hospitality-driven vacation rental company asked whether Empire could handle residential interiors. The project quickly expanded from furniture alone to full procurement, delivery, installation and styling — essentially everything inside the home. The experience exposed Empire to both the scale of the residential furniture market and the operational gaps within it.
From there, the strategy sharpened. Empire move into residential did not originate with the individual consumers, but on B2B residential and hospitality environments where process, logistics and accountability matter as much as design. Model homes, multifamily developments, senior living communities and mixed-use hospitality projects became natural extensions of the company’s existing capabilities.
That trajectory culminated in September 2025 with the acquisition of Model Home Interiors, a move that formally brought Empire into the model home and lifestyle real estate sector. The acquisition added brick-and-mortar operations in North Carolina and Maryland and expanded the company’s project typologies to include multifamily, student housing and senior living communities.
For Corrigan, the opportunity is less about chasing new categories and more about applying a proven operating model to industries that historically have been fragmented. In the model home world, she noted, many providers remain small, local and highly decentralized — a structure that increasingly clashes with the needs of large national developers.
Empire’s value proposition is familiarity. Specification, procurement, logistics, installation and project management — the same fundamentals that define a commercial furniture dealer — become differentiators when applied at scale to hospitality and residential environments. Technology investments, national delivery networks and financial stability allow Empire to streamline a process that has long been cumbersome for developers.
Importantly, the rebrand does not signal a retreat from commercial interiors. Corrigan is explicit that office remains the company’s core business. The change to Empire & Co. is meant to remove barriers, not shift priorities. “Our core business will always be commercial,” she said, emphasizing that the new name simply opens the door to serve clients across more environments without the constraints implied by “office.”
The timing is notable. Across the dealer landscape, consolidation and expansion have become increasingly common as clients look for fewer partners capable of handling larger, more complex portfolios. National reach, balance sheet strength and operational depth definitely influence award decisions.
Empire’s leadership sees scale as necessary, not as an end goal. Larger clients want a single point of contact. Manufacturers demand financial strength at the dealer level. Smaller dealers, often without succession plans, are increasingly open to acquisition. In that environment, size becomes both a competitive advantage and a defensive strategy.
Empire & Co.’s rebrand is supported by a redesigned website that unifies the company’s brands and services under a single identity. New showrooms and offices, including an expanded South Florida presence and a Miami showroom, are planned to strengthen its East Coast footprint.
More acquisitions are already on the horizon, particularly in hospitality and residential, with additional growth expected on the commercial side as well. The goal, Corrigan suggested, is not just to grow bigger, but to grow smarter by building a business that can withstand economic cycles while remaining relevant as design and real estate continue to converge.
Empire & Co.’s new name clarifies its plans for the future. After 80 years of adaptation, the company is signaling that its future will be defined less by a single category and more by its ability to operate wherever interiors matter.