Developers of a furniture industry showplace wrapped up their third convention in two years Friday and talked of adding millions more square feet of space and casting a wider international net for buyers and sellers.

Across the country, the new head of a venerable old furniture show in North Carolina said he was less worried about growth at the World Market Center in Las Vegas than about putting people through the turnstiles of his fall show in October.

“Certainly Las Vegas has sharpened the focus for High Point,” said Brian Casey, president since April of the International Home Furnishings Market Authority in High Point, N.C. “That’s a good thing. There’s room in this industry for both to exist.”

Las Vegas market officials declared their show a success, saying they thought they drew about 50,000 people Monday through Friday, about the same attendance as in January. They focused on an increase in the number of exhibitors, from about 1,100 in January to 1,500 this week, and touted their efforts to make a splash on the worldwide stage.

“We thought it was about time for the U.S. to have its own international market,” said Shawn Samson, a partner in the project that opened its first 10-story, 1.3 million square-foot building in January 2005.

The goal is to host a Sin City bazaar in which buyers and sellers can mingle, wine and dine in air-conditioned comfort despite sizzling summer heat. The show isn’t open to the public, but caters to home decor designers, buyers and furniture industry insiders.

A second building, 16 stories tall and 1.6 million square feet, is due to open for the next show in January. Samson and development partner Jack Kashani said it will have a top-floor restaurant, lounge and banquet hall overlooking downtown Las Vegas.

A third building, 16 stories and 2.1 million square feet, is due to break ground in September and open in July 2008, and a 15-story parking garage has been added to plans.

“We want to consolidate the range of products that buyers and sellers want under one roof and make the presentation and offering more efficient for both,” Samson said.

By 2013, they expect to spend more than $3 billion to build eight massive buildings on 57 acres now covered by three semi-permanent tent-like pavilions that resemble airline hangars. Totaling more than 12 million square feet, the finished campus would rival the square footage at the High Point market, which draws about 70,000 people twice a year to its 188 buildings.

“We’re not out to duplicate any other market,” said Gerry Sawyer, World Market Center chief operating officer.

Kashani called the just-concluded Las Vegas convention “an order-writing market,” and said he was excited that buyers came from 118 different countries to stroll through pavilions that for the first time featured offerings by such countries as Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Egypt, Italy, Mexico.

“We are bringing new buyers to the U.S. market that have never been here before,” he said, “from Russia, the Middle East, other parts of the world.”

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