Sep 3 2015
With company representatives, Burbank Mayor Bob Frutos, City Council members, local officials and community leaders on-hand, IKEA the world’s leading home furnishings retailer, today officially broke ground where it is constructing a new, larger store in Burbank, California, less than one mile away from the company’s oldest store in the Western United States.
IKEA breaks ground at site of future new Burbank relocation (Photo: Business Wire)
Until the new, roomier store opens on the new site in Spring 2017, customers can continue to shop at the existing IKEA Burbank. (Nearby IKEA stores are in Carson, Costa Mesa and Covina.)
The current 242,000-square-foot IKEA Burbank, the first IKEA store in California and sixth in the U.S., opened November 1990 on 6.4 acres along I-5 at San Fernando Boulevard. The future 456,000-square-foot store and its more than 1,700 convenient parking spaces will be built on 22 acres west of San Fernando Boulevard and south of Providencia Avenue, providing customers with improved accessibility. IKEA has contracted with VCC Construction to build the store, and plans reflect the same unique architectural design for which IKEA stores are known worldwide. Just as the existing store has a solar photovoltaic array atop its roof, IKEA hopes to install a similar solar energy system atop the relocated store. In addition to the nearly 400 Burbank coworkers already part of the global IKEA family, the new store will generate even more sales and property tax revenue yearly for the City and local schools.
“We are pleased to be breaking ground today on our commitment to extend our Burbank presence with a new, larger and updated store that will provide an improved experience for our many loyal customers currently shopping at IKEA Burbank,” said Lars Petersson, IKEA US president. “This new IKEA Burbank store also will help us introduce the latest version of the unique IKEA concept to Southern Californians who value good design, good function and affordable prices, but have not yet had the chance to visit an IKEA store.”
The new, more spacious IKEA Burbank will feature a larger quantity of the nearly 10,000 exclusively designed items, 50 inspirational room-settings, three model home interiors, a supervised children’s play area, and a larger (600-seat) restaurant serving Swedish specialties. Other family-friendly features include a ‘Children’s IKEA’ area in the showroom, baby-care rooms, play areas throughout the store, and preferred parking. IKEA now offers a product picking and delivery service and an IKEA Family loyalty program, and has begun visiting homes in areas where it has stores so design solutions can better reflect local living situations and needs.