Ikea plans Dallas-area store
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, January 26, 2004
FRISCO, Texas — Swedish home furnishings juggernaut Ikea will enter Dallas next year with a 310,000-square-foot store in this booming northern suburb.
The store will be Ikea's second in Texas after Houston and is part of the chain's aggressive drive to open 50 new North American stores in 10 years.
Ikea is buying 25 acres near Stonebriar Centre at the northeast corner of the Dallas North Tollway and State Highway 121, said Joseph Roth, director of expansion public affairs for Ikea North America. The retailer hopes to break ground this spring and open in early summer 2005.
An economic development agreement with the city of Frisco calls for Ikea to spend at least $40 million on the project, Roth said.
"The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is a very populous and fast growing metropolitan area," he said. "The furniture purchasing potential is very high there."
He added that Ikea already has familiarity in the market with consumers who have shopped the Houston store and transplants who know the retailer from other cities.
Last year, Ikea opened five North American stores. This year, new U.S. stores will open in Bloomington, Minn., and New Haven, Conn., in the summer; in the Philadelphia area (its second store in the market) in August; in Houston, a relocation, Aug. 4; and in Tempe, Ariz., in the fall.
In addition to Frisco, new markets on tap for 2005 include Atlanta and Stoughton, Mass., both scheduled to open in the summer.
Roth noted that Ikea had planned to open its third San Francisco Bay Area store in Dublin, Calif., in 2004, a Somerville, Mass., store in 2004 and a Brooklyn store in 2005, but various issues have pushed the dates back to 2006 or 2007.
