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Ikea sets Atlanta store for 2005

By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, September 21, 2003

Atlanta — Swedish home furnishings giant Ikea will enter Georgia and the Southeast in 2005 with a 366,000-square-foot store in this city's Midtown area.

The store will be part of the 138-acre, mixed-use Atlantic Station development at Interstates 75 and 85.

Ikea will build on a 15-acre tract, once earmarked for an aquarium, with construction starting as early as next spring and an opening expected in summer 2005.

The move represents the biggest geographic leap for Ikea since it launched its aggressive plan to open five new U.S. stores a year over 10 years. The Southeast has been "Ikea-free" and is ripe for expansion, said Joseph Roth, an Ikea spokesman.

The closest existing stores are in Woodbridge, Va., in the Washington market, and Houston. Atlanta initially will be serviced out of Ikea's distribution center in Perryville, Md.

"At some point we needed to venture into the region and we decided why not now, and let's just do it big," Roth said. "So we're doing it big in Midtown."

He added that Ikea sees Atlanta as large enough to support multiple stores — from two to four — "but at this point this is all we're committed to."

Ikea recently unveiled plans for a 22nd U.S. store in Tempe, Ariz., and earlier had announced new units for New Haven, Conn., Bloomington, Minn., and Philadelphia.

A Boston-market store in Somerville, Mass., was planned for next year, but legal issues may delay the opening. The retailer said it is eyeing a site for a second Boston-area store that could open before Somerville, although no opening date has been given.

A store in the New York borough of Brooklyn also is planned for a summer 2005 opening.

Atlanta's Midtown store will be similar to the other new Ikeas, with nearly 10,000 items, 50 home furnishings room settings, five full model home displays, a supervised play area and a 300-seat restaurant.

It will be built atop an underground parking garage with 1,597 spaces on two levels.

Midtown Atlanta is undergoing a renaissance, with new urban lofts and high-rises that are typically home to part of the retailer's targeted consumer base. At the same time, its location near the interstates will give it easy access from Atlanta's growing suburbs.

Ikea wouldn't disclose sales projections, but at 366,000 square feet, the Midtown store will be the retailer's third-largest U.S. unit, after the 450,000-square-foot Chicago store and the 370,000-square-foot Paramus, N.J., unit that opened this summer.

"That gives some indication of how excited we are about going into Atlanta," said Ian Worling, Ikea's deputy country manager.

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