IKEA Breaks Ground For New Store In Draper, UT

Furniture World News

With company representatives, city officials and community leaders on-hand, IKEA, the world’s leading home furnishings retailer, today officially broke ground for its future store, to be located south of Salt Lake City, in the City of Draper. Until the 310,000 square-foot future IKEA Draper opens in Spring 2007, Utah customers can shop at IKEA stores in Covina, CA; Tempe, AZ; West Sacramento (just opened March 1); or they can shop online at www.IKEA.com. Under construction on 22.5 acres along Pony Express Drive at the northwestern corner of I-15 and Bangerter Highway, the future IKEA Draper will present 50 different room settings, three complete homes, a supervised children’s play area, and a 300-seat restaurant serving Swedish specialties such as meatballs with lingonberries or salmon plates, as well as American dishes. Family-friendly features include a Children’s IKEA area in the showroom, baby care rooms, preferred parking and play areas throughout the store. Of its total 40-acre parcel, IKEA also will be selling approximately 13 acres for development as complementary retail and restaurant uses. In addition to 500 jobs created during the construction phase, approximately 300-350 coworkers will join the IKEA family when the new store is fully built. “We are thrilled that construction is now underway on the future IKEA Draper,” said Doug Greenholz, real estate manager for IKEA. “It is an exciting opportunity for us to bring our unique family-friendly shopping experience closer to customers throughout the Mountain West. This location will allow them to visit IKEA more frequently, while also enabling us to attract new customers who may not know us yet.” There currently are more than 230 IKEA stores in 33 countries, including 27 in the U.S., where IKEA plans to open three to five stores a year. Other U.S. stores are being planned in: Brooklyn, NY; Canton, MI; Dublin, CA; Portland, OR; Round Rock, TX; Somerville, MA; and Sunrise, FL. Since its 1943 founding in Sweden, IKEA has offered a wide range of home furnishings and accessories of good design and function, at low prices so the majority of the people can afford them. IKEA has been ranked in FORTUNE’s annual “100 Best Companies to Work For” List (two years in a row), Working Mother magazine’s annual list of “100 Best Companies for Working Mothers” (three years in a row) and Training magazine’s annual “Top 100” ranking of companies that excel at human capital development (four years in a row). IKEA is recognized as a socially responsible company, and continuously supports initiatives that benefit causes such as children and the environment. To visit the IKEA Web site or for information about working at IKEA, please go to http://www.IKEA-usa.com.