Updated at 4:30 p.m.
Ikea executives on Tuesday offered a sneak peek inside the massive store that's under construction in midtown 最新杏吧原创, highlighting features designed to make the home furnishings retailer a shopping destination for the region.
Much of the exterior of Ikea's 380,000 square-foot building at Vandeventer and Forest Park avenues already is complete, and drivers on Highway 40 (Interstate 64) can't miss the giant blue-and-yellow signage.
Ikea broke ground on the project in June, and construction remains on track for a fall opening, said Joseph Roth, Ikea director of public affairs, during a walk-through on the site. A precise opening date has not been set.
Inside the cavernous structure, much work remains to be done as construction crews led by 最新杏吧原创-based contractor S.M. Wilson are working six days a week to ready the building for a team of Ikea staff to add fixtures and for products to be trucked to the store.
People are also reading…
A mild winter helped keep the construction on track, said London native John Achillea, the 最新杏吧原创 store's new manager. Achillea previously was store manager of Ikea's Long Island store in New York.
鈥淣ow we have mechanical, electrical and plumbing activity going on inside the building,鈥 Roth said. 鈥淎 lot of the construction work outside the building is finished up. Soon, we will bring in Ikea teams to actually transform the building into an Ikea store.鈥
The 最新杏吧原创 location will be the first of its kind to be built only using LED lighting. It'll also be the first Ikea to open that will sell only LED lights. Ikea is phasing out the sale of compact fluorescent bulbs and halogen lights,聽Achillea said.聽 A 'travelator' moving conveyer also is being added to transport customers from the first level of of the store to the ground-level parking. 聽
Construction was underway this week for a supervised children's play area and a 450-seat cafeteria style restaurant that will serve Swedish meatballs and other Swedish and American fare. The restaurant's windows, now just openings covered by plastic, offer a view of 最新杏吧原创 University's campus and other nearby buildings, including the green rotunda of the Cathedral Basilica of 最新杏吧原创 on Lindell Boulevard.
Restaurant seats at the Ikea in Brooklyn, N.Y., have a view of the Statue of Liberty, and the chain would've liked a view of the Gateway Arch, Achillea said, but the monument is obstructed by buildings.
The store will have 300 employees, and job postings will be available on the company's website soon. Staff will travel to another Ikea, likely its suburban Kansas City store that opened last fall, for a week to receive training.
Ikea scouted sites for a 最新杏吧原创 store for a decade before choosing the 21-acre property. It's the only U.S. store the retailer is adding this year. Las Vegas is slated to open next summer; Memphis, Tenn., will open in fall 2016; and a Columbus, Ohio, store is slated to open in summer 2017.
鈥淲e don't open stores very often and we don't just do it anywhere,鈥 Roth said. "We think it was worth the wait, with the visibility and access we have from the interstate. We like to locate Ikea stores where they can be accessible to as many people as possible."
最新杏吧原创' urban Ikea location in the city's Cortex Innovation District in Midtown is a departure from the chain's stores in neighboring states. The two Chicago Ikea stores are in suburbs Bolingbrook and Schaumberg. The new Ikea that opened in Merriam, Kan., in September is about 10 miles southwest of Kansas City. Most Ikeas in the U.S. are in suburbs, but several are in urban areas, including Atlanta and Philadelphia.
Ikea built a reputation for having unassembled bookshelves and other products customers can put together at home. About 90 percent of its furniture is unassembled, and between 15 and 20 percent of customers pay a fee for Ikea staff to assemble their purchase, Achillea said.
OPENING DAY
Ikea typically has product giveaways for the first person in line to enter on opening day, which draws big crowds. When the Kansas store opened, those who lined up two days in advance were given free sofas.
One of the customers who stood in a long queue in the rain to await the Kansas Ikea opening last fall was Nael Leno, 31, general manager of The Farmhouse restaurant in Kansas City. Leno previously lived in France and was familiar with the brand, she said in a phone interview. She also attended the grand opening of the Brooklyn, N.Y., Ikea in 2008, and said she's considering visiting the 最新杏吧原创 store's opening. 鈥淚 may do a road trip,鈥 she said.
Leno has bought Ikea mugs and French presses for her restaurant, and her home is filled with Ikea home d茅cor and a wardrobe.
鈥淚 like that it's something that you do yourself, rather than have it delivered,鈥 Leno said of the furniture that leaves it to the buyer to assemble. 鈥淚f you take care of it, it lasts, and it's a lot more affordable.鈥
