RACINE - A local flooring company will use the vacated Linens 'n Things store at Regency Mall to open a new flooring "supercenter."

Lakeside Flooring, 1324 Main St., will dramatically expand its offerings when it opens The Flooring Supercenter, said co-owner Paul Curtin.

Curtin, who owns Lakeside with his son Shannon, said they hope to open the new store near the start of June.

"We're a full-service flooring company, but we don't stock a lot," he said. "Everything is basically custom and by appointment only."

When they take over the 27,500-square-foot former Linens 'n Things on the mall's southern edge, "We will stock it to the brim with every kind of floor covering you can get," Paul Curtin said.

The new project was a coup for Regency Mall Manager Curt Pruitt, who is now able to fill a large hole at Regency. The vacant Linens 'n Things store is about 10 times larger than the average store at the mall.

In October, the Clifton, N.J.-based housewares retailer gave up trying to emerge from a bankruptcy reorganization and went into liquidation.

Pruitt said Regency is one of the first of about 85 CBL & Associates malls to fill an empty Linens store. Pruitt said he ran into Curtin at the mall, and their conversation led to the lease.

"He had ideas and I had inventory (vacant stores), and we just took it from there," Pruitt said.

Lakeside now does about half commercial and half residential work, said Curtin, 60, who has a long history in the flooring industry. He said the new store will buy discontinued lines of carpeting and other flooring materials from manufacturers at 30-50 percent below normal wholesale prices. Thus, he said, retail prices will also be significantly discounted.

Curtin said the store will likely have in stock: 100-150 rolls of carpeting; 100 rolls of sheet flooring such as linoleum and vinyl; about 30 choices of laminates; and the same amount of hardwoods.

The store will also carry some window coverings but will mainly specialize in flooring, he said.

Shoppers can do cash and carry, choose free delivery within about

10 miles or have their products installed, Curtin said.

The owners will close the existing Lakeside Flooring with this new venture.

Curtin said they are already thinking about expanding this concept to other CBL malls.

Pruitt said The Flooring Supercenter will be the third new store to open at Regency this year, following Books For Less and Browart23.

"It's a great turn of events," he said, "and I think it will bolster people's confidence in the area."