Work will be getting underway shortly on Winnipeg’s first, long awaited, Ikea store.
Work will be getting underway shortly on Winnipeg's first, long awaited, Ikea store.
“The store has been tendered and we are in the process of evaluating the bids,” said Madeleine L>wenborg-Frick, public relations manager for Ikea Canada.
“Construction will start before the end of this year and we are planning to open late 2012.”
The 395,000 square foot Winnipeg store is the 12th Ikea store in Canada for the world’s largest furniture retailer.
The Manitoba store will be the second largest store in the country, Lwenborg-Frick noted.
A 430,000-square-foot store is replacing an existing facility in Ottawa and is scheduled to open later this year.
Lwenborg-Frick said that the architect is David O’Sheehan with Abbarch Architecture Inc.
“We are very excited about this project,” she said.
“We have a great piece of land (in the fast growing southwestern part of the city) and we have a good joint venture partnership with the City of Winnipeg. We are thrilled to be working with the city and the province.”
In conjunction with the Ikea construction, the city has been working on $26.5 million worth of infrastructure improvements.
These include the installation of water and sewer pipes to service the new site.
Extra lanes and traffic lights on nearby thoroughfares will help accommodate the expected traffic.
Work also includes new cycling paths to connect Taylor Avenue to the existing Galloping Bison Trail on Sterling Lyon Parkway.
Fairweather Properties, the site developer, and Ikea Canada are paying the upfront costs.
The city and province will pay back $22 million to the developers, using the increased property taxes generated from the new commercial development.
Based on rough estimates, the development will generate about $5.93 million annually in municipal and school taxes.
Lwenborg-Frick noted that Winnipeggers will be able to enjoy the complete Ikea experience.
“The showroom and room settings will be the same as in our other stores,” she said.
“The additional space will be for warehousing.”
The store will also have restaurants capable of seating about 500.
The parking lot, Lwenborg-Frick said, will have more than 1,500 parking stalls.
The parking lot will exceed city standards for greenery, as the furniture chain promises to plant four times as many trees, shrubs and grasses than zoning regulations demand.
Ikea has committed to planting vegetation to separate every 20 to 30 rows of parking stalls.
“This project is going to have a strong economic impact on the community,” Lwenborg-Frick said.
“We will be employing about 400 full and part-time staff.”
The Ikea building is expected to be the first component of a 1.5-million-square-foot, $400-million development on both sides of Sterling Lyon Parkway.
The largest component of the development will be the Seasons of Tuxedo mall.
The project is designed to be a more pedestrian-friendly concept, rather than a traditional big-box mall.
The development – which should be completed by 2018 – will include other retailers, office space and possibly a hotel and multiple-screen movie theatre.
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