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Crescent City Boulevard Development (IKEA)


dubone

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Either Charlotte or Raleigh would be an excellent location.

This is off the website:

1. What new IKEA store openings are scheduled?

Canton, MI - now open!

Round Rock, TX - November 15, 2006

Draper, UT - Spring 2007

Sunrise, FL - Summer 2007

Portland, OR - Summer 2007

Brooklyn, NY - further details coming soon!

Dublin, CA - further details coming soon!

IKEA is also in the process of proposing stores that would open in 2007-2008. Stay tuned for store locations as our plans become definite.

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Houston's has about as much parking as your average grocery store, so it is not required in excess at all. Concord Mills will be a good place to locate it as it will fit in well (read tons of existing parking and similar development). If they go with a location closer in town then it should be required to have garage parking in the event IKEA does decide that it is necessary to pave over 6 acres of grass and trees.

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It would be a huge shame if this site leaked the coming of Ikea and a Cabarrus group swooped in and offered a better deal.

If they locate in Charlotte, I'll go occassionally, but I avoid Concord Mills like the plague.

In all, it seems fairly well set that this region will get an IKEA.

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Confession time. The wife and I went to IKEA ATL for the Christmas weekend. It's our 3rd pilgrimage since the store opened. It's 366,000 SF of retail nirvana.

We opened the store Sat AM and stayed until dinner time. Sunday we were back from 11-2:30, but only b/c we didn't know they opened at 10 for the holiday. And yes we ate lunch there both days and I munched on a few hot dogs.

I'll conceed that some of their stuff is on the cheap side. If we still had younguns around, I'd be careful buying things that could be damaged easily. On the other hand their designs are innovative and environmentally friendly and the staff are plentiful and helpful.

The kitchens are definitely needing quality upgrades. This is a big deal. If you re-do your kitchen, you don't want to replace it in 5 years. Seems like they view kitchens the same as futons.

As for the parking lot, the ATL store has a small lot for picking up your order and a large underground parking garage.

It's a great place to get ideas, appreciate interesting design, and retail tactics. You can also get a lot of cool, durable things for way less than the usual retailers charge.

BTW, we stopped in Greenville on the way home. Lo and behold, they already have a Whole Foods Market! Ours is still years away.

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Not that I'm hoping it will get built in that area, but there is still a lot of undeveloped land along Speedway Blvd and Derita Rd around the mall. For example, CabCoun just extended Speedway Blvd beyond Derita for at least a mile or so. And there is that road that runs down to the Convention Center, seems like that location would make sense.

I'd rather see it go by City Blvd due to the fact that it would promote development at that exit and would push the city towards fixing The Weave.

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I can't picture them in the Concord Mills area because I've been to every IKEA on the east coast (yes, I'm a Swedish furniture junkie lol) and they like to have their big yellow logo easily noticable from an interstate. In other words, they like to stand out. Though the only exception I know of is the Atlanta store. The stores also like to be directly off of interstate exits, near universities/colleges, and somewhat near a substantial residential population. Personally, City Boulevard has it all and then some. It would be a TERRIBLE mess if they located on Concord Mills Boulevard and you wouldn't imagine the traffic there would be on that road on opening day if they do locate in the Concord Mills area. 3 weeks after Atlanta's store opened about a year and a few months ago, I went down there and traffic was still backed up to I-75/I-85 on 17th Street. Are there even that many people in Charlotte (or North Carolina) that even know about IKEA? I would think so since we have a large influx of northeners that seem to usually know about them.
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Concord Mills is 12 miles (roundtrip) farther from most of the population in Charlotte than City Blvd. Plus there is a tremendous amount of traffic around Concord Mills, whereas City Blvd is a virtually empty interchange.

Who knows which location they actually picked, but I could see the case for City Blvd. Plus, we already know that Crescent had started a rezoning for the City Blvd site.

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City Blvd doesn't connect to University City Blvd or to Tryon yet. I'm sure if it did it would not be empty. My point was more that they could have the whole interchange to themselves for the time until the roadway was connected. And even then, IKEA is independent enough as to not really be affected by the relative health of other stores. They draw from such a large distance.

We'll see, you all might be right that they chose Concord Mills.

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There is a reason for that. Retail is dying on that part of Tryon. The thing about big box retailers, and Ikea is nothing more than a big box retailer with a good marketing dept, is they locate where there are other big box retailers. The vast majority of the population will eventually use 485 to get there and because of that the Concord Mills location has got to be highly desirable place for them to go. And they don't have to wait on the NCDOT to build a highway either.
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It's pretty much a moot point anyway. City Blvd is nothing but a short connector road from I-85 to Neal Rd. If it wasn't because the then First Union wanted a second exit out of their huge complex on Harris Blvd to 85, that little spur would not even be there. Ikea can't locate there if the highway doesn't exist.

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It's pretty much a moot point anyway. City Blvd is nothing but a short connector road from I-85 to Neal Rd. If it wasn't because the then First Union wanted a second exit out of their huge complex on Harris Blvd to 85, that little spur would not even be there. Ikea can't locate there if the highway doesn't exist.
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