IKEA, known for inexpensive, chic furniture, confirmed that it has landed a site in Sunrise after seeking a South Florida location for almost five years.
BY ELAINE WALKER
ewalker@MiamiHerald.com
Florida IKEA fans: The wait will soon be over.
The retailer known for its cheap, chic furniture confirmed Tuesday that it has landed a site in Sunrise after searching for a South Florida location for almost five years.
The 293,000-square-foot store, which will be the first south of Atlanta, will be built on the site of the former Blockbuster Golf and Games. Construction is scheduled to begin this spring with an opening scheduled for summer 2014.
IKEA has spent the past few years searching for a site along the 595 corridor in Broward County. The idea was that a central location would make it easier for consumers coming from throughout the tri-country area and even the west coast of Florida. The company had previously considered a Davie location but ran into objections from the community and development problems with the site.
”It’s been a challenge to find the perfect location, but we think we have,” said Joseph Roth, IKEA’s North American spokesman. “It is so accessable to Palm Beach County, as well as Miami-Dade.”
IKEA eventually envisions having more than one location in South Florida, with the possibility of another site in Miami-Dade County. Discussions have frequently centered on a potential site at the Mall of the Americas.
Many Florida residents are already familiar with IKEA’s contemporary furniture and accessories, which can be used to decorate an entire home from kitchen tables and sofas to lamps, linens, bookcases, cooking utensils and wall decor. Most IKEA furniture has to be assembled.
But until now, South Florida customers have had to either buy online, through catalogs or on pilgrimages to IKEA stores in other states. That drive got a little shorter last June when IKEA opened in Atlanta, as the company has been gradually working its way south.
IKEA’s core customers are typically in their 20s and 30s, often young professionals looking to furnish their first home or apartment with stylish yet affordable furnishings. But the contemporary look and the price point also appeal to customers of all ages.
”They do a masterful job of creating store traffic,” said Britt Beemer, chairman of America’s Research Group. “They have a whole different clientele than most furniture stores do.”
Valerie Zucker fell in love with IKEA when she discovered the retailer more than a decade ago on a business trip to California. Since then she has shopped IKEA online or on trips out of town. But because of the shipping costs she’s had to limit her purchases to small or light-weight items such as accessories, plastic patio chairs and candles. That will certainly change when the Sunrise store opens.
”It’s a great store for this and that,” said Zucker, 35, a public relations executive who lives in Hollywood. “You can explore new design options without making a serious financial commitment.”
The Sunrise IKEA store will have two levels, featuring nearly 10,000 exclusive items, a supervised children’s play area and a 250-seat restaurant serving Swedish specialties such as meatballs with lingonberries and salmon plates. The store will have about 350 employees and its own two-level parking garage with 1,100 spaces.
IKEA will be part of a new shopping center, ”Gateway at Sawgrass,” being developed by Stiles Corp. of Fort Lauderdale. IKEA expects this week to complete a deal with Stiles to purchase the 20 acres of land for its store. Stiles will use the adjacent five acres to develop 40,000-square-feet of retail shops and restaurants facing on Northwest 136th Avenue.
”IKEA is one of the strongest retailers, and we’re excited to have them,” said Nancy Brusher, vice president of marketing for Stiles. “We believe that other retailers will want to be at that site because they will be a big draw to the public.”
IKEA’s trademark blue and yellow stores regularly attract customers from as far as 40 to 60 minutes away, Roth said. It’s also not unusual for loyal customers to make road trips and load up U-Hauls with their purchases.
The company was founded in 1943 in Sweden but didn’t open its first store in the United States until 1985. IKEA has more than 225 stores in 33 countries, including 26 in the United States plus another eight already announced, not including Sunrise. The company has been on an aggressive U.S. expansion push, with plans to add between three and five stores per year. The U.S. stores rang up $2 billion in sales last year.
”Wherever they go, they make the retail area much bigger than it was before,” Beemer said. “They get people to drive a long way because they love to shop there.”
