Swedish Retailer IKEA Announces Plans for a 380,000 SF Store in St. Louis
Popular Swedish retailer IKEA recently announced it is submitting plans to the City of St. Louis for a store that will increase its presence in the Midwestern United States. A Kansas City-area store is already under construction and is on track to open in the fall of 2014 in Merriam, Kansas.
Gabriel Circiog, Associate Editor
Popular Swedish retailer IKEA recently announced it is submitting plans to the City of St. Louis for a store that will increase its presence in the Midwest. 
The application marks the start of the governmental approval process and if everything goes according to plans the store will open in the fall of 2015. Situated in the center of Midtown St. Louis, the 380,000-square-foot store proposed by IKEA would be built along the northern side of Interstate 64, close to the Vandeventer Avenue exit. Another IKEA store, in the Kansas City area, is already under construction and is on track to open in the fall of 2014 in Merriam, Kan.
The new store would be located on close to 21-acre site purchased in the Cortex Innovation District, a technology community created to commercialize the benefits of university and regional corporate research in St. Louis.
IKEA U.S. President Mike Ward said in a statement: “We look forward to continue growing our Midwestern U.S. presence with IKEA St. Louis. This dynamic location would provide the already 101,000 St. Louis-area customers a store of their own and introduce the unique IKEA shopping experience to other consumers in Eastern Missouri, Southern Illinois and beyond.”
According to the revealed plans the store will feature one level of underground parking and spaces accessible at-grade, giving the store a total of 1,250 parking spaces on-site. From an architectural point of view the store will reflect the same design for which IKEA stores are known across the globe. IKEA has also announced it will evaluate potential on-site power generation to complement its current U.S. renewable energy presence which is currently at nearly 90 percent of its U.S. locations.
IKEA St. Louis would feature close to 10,000 exclusively designed items, 50 inspirational room-settings, three model home interiors, a supervised children’s play area and a 450-seat restaurant serving Swedish specialties.
During the construction phase approximately 500 jobs are expected to be created and around 300 workers are expected to join the IKEA team once the new store opens.
Logo Courtesy of: www.ikea.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.