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IKEA's Charlotte Store


monsoon

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.... Is this really the godsend that University City has been waiting for to push it into competition with SouthPark and Uptown/Southend? Or is this just another box in an already bursting sea of poorly planned retail big box developments? The O sure seems optimistic about what this will bring to the area. ....
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Having a Charlottte IKEA that was part of a TOD would have been great. Correct me if I am a wrong but isn't the IKEA in Atlanta part of a larger mixed used and wakable development? I think those that run Charlotte are so desperate for our city to be considered "World Class" that they just accept any brand name development without pushing for quality growth just so they can say "See Charlotte has an IKEA just like Atlanta now!". IKEA coming to Charlotte is a great coup, we beat out The Triangle, I am sure they must have at least made a passing glance at the other fast growing region our state. I just think not driving a tougher bargain with IKEA for a more responsible store was a lost opportunity.

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Retailers with large draws are TOD in and of themselves. However, I truly hope that the city demands some significant elements of TOD, such as walkability. It appeared that they were starting to plan for connectivity, but all of those houses better not be in the typical Crescent mould.

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The installation of the largest big box store in North Carolina along with accommodation for 1600 cars, the fact they are coming here because the city promised to build them a road, and the luring of a super walmart to the same property doesn't sound like TOD to me. It's amazing to me that people who are so quick to criticize the suburbs for building developments such as this as being responsible for "endless sprawl" are quick to to overlook it when its a place they want to shop in or think it means something important because some trendy store has decided to locate here.

Given the hoopla that has been generated on this forum about IKEA being new, fresh, innovative, appealing to the "creative class" I am surprised this development is going to be the same kind of place where one finds a Super Walmart. It seems to me the best thing about this store is their marketing department.

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It is sprawl. But at least its adjacent to 25,000 workers in the URP and 23,000 college students at UNC Charlotte. It's also a plus that the developers will assist in building a gridded street network around the site to mitigate some of the traffic issues that plague UC (and that LOTS of new tax revenue will come to Mecklenburg, rather than Cabarrus Co).

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I guess IKEA did not look to locate in the city because there is just not enough residential there to draw them in and parking is insufficient. Although I do have to say that Lowe's SouthEnd did get a lot of scrutiny and review and should be a model store when it finally appears. It is too bad that IKEA could not have located closer in or contiguous to future LRT.

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IKEA's are big boxes with furniture in them. I happen to like their stuff as its affordable and simple but take it for what it is-a better marketed, more attractive big box. I'm sure there will be collective groans when people realize its self-assembly.

The store in Pittsburgh is surrounded by other chain garbage-I think there is a Babies R Us right next to it. I would hardly call it a tourist destination (well I guess shopping is America's pasttime so maybe it is).

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I guess IKEA did not look to locate in the city because there is just not enough residential there to draw them in and parking is insufficient. Although I do have to say that Lowe's SouthEnd did get a lot of scrutiny and review and should be a model store when it finally appears. It is too bad that IKEA could not have located closer in or contiguous to future LRT.
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Indeed. Every time I head down Independence from Uptown passing that long stretch of dead mall before the Sharon Amity intersection is so depressing. If there was a concerted effort by a large developer like IKEA or the city to cobble together the empty space and rejuvenate it the spark for the overall area would be fantastic.

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I guess IKEA did not look to locate in the city because there is just not enough residential there to draw them in and parking is insufficient. Although I do have to say that Lowe's SouthEnd did get a lot of scrutiny and review and should be a model store when it finally appears. It is too bad that IKEA could not have located closer in or contiguous to future LRT.
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It's hard to believe the strategy of building big box retail and regional shopping malls for chain stores is going to do much for the center city or do anything to make Charlotte a real destination. It still looks just like anywhere else in the South. Retailers come and go and exist at the whims of the current generation that thinks "whatever chain" is hot stuff. Charlotte is littered with empty places where places like that used to be located , and I have no confidence that in 15 years the same won't be said for this IKEA.

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This project hasn't even gone through the rezoning process, so I think its a bit premature to critisize the city for being lax with IKEA when we don't know the final outcome of what it will look like and what conditions the city will require on their plan.

I agree that it would be nice if it were more TOD oriented like the store in Atlanta, and if that is what you want to see, then now is the time to start pushing your city council members in that direction.

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An issue is that IKEA as a store concept is not really set up for TOD style development - even on their website, they promote bringing a big car or truck, shopping all day, and loading your vehicle up with tons of big boxes of stuff that you need to haul home and assemble. Its hard to imagine many customers would ride a CATS bus or LRT to a place like IKEA and shopping for big furniture, etc. Thus the mass amounts of parking, and their locations being near an interstate highway in most cases.

The Woodbridge, VA store is built over 2-3 levels of structured parking, I believe, which is a good approach. But they still have a large amount of surface parking around the store, and it's located on a ring road next to the gigantic sea of asphalt that is Potomac Mills Mall (of the mills corp, a la Concord Mills).

I guess one thing we can hope for is that the Charlotte IKEA will push the envelope a bit in terms of environmental site design - conserving green areas and reducing asphalt coverage.

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They offer home delivery in places where it isn't common for people to own huge american style vehicles. I don't think the city should continue to accept develop such as this just because that is the typical way a company likes to do business. The same could be said for Walmart, Home Depot, Best Buy, etc. When pushed, they will come up with a more responsible design but I feel they will not do that in this case. Barring that, then they should have been pushed to redevelop an area of town that already has busted retail of this type. I would have been much more impressed by that rather than the SOS they are doing where they come in an bulldoze down more land, build more highways, and create new traffic congestion in an area all to accommodate their bottom line.

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An issue is that IKEA as a store concept is not really set up for TOD style development - even on their website, they promote bringing a big car or truck, shopping all day, and loading your vehicle up with tons of big boxes of stuff that you need to haul home and assemble. Its hard to imagine many customers would ride a CATS bus or LRT to a place like IKEA and shopping for big furniture, etc. Thus the mass amounts of parking, and their locations being near an interstate highway in most cases.

The Woodbridge, VA store is built over 2-3 levels of structured parking, I believe, which is a good approach. But they still have a large amount of surface parking around the store, and it's located on a ring road next to the gigantic sea of asphalt that is Potomac Mills Mall (of the mills corp, a la Concord Mills).

I guess one thing we can hope for is that the Charlotte IKEA will push the envelope a bit in terms of environmental site design - conserving green areas and reducing asphalt coverage.

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IKEA does offer home delivery, so it would be possible for someone to ride the LRT up to the City Blvd station and walk to the store. Purchase their furniture and have it delivered. Most people won't do that...but the option will exist for those that want to.

At the very least IKEA could switch their parking lot and building around so that the building fronts City Blvd. This would make it easier for those that would chose the 15min walk from the City Blvd LRT station.

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IKEA does offer home delivery, so it would be possible for someone to ride the LRT up to the City Blvd station and walk to the store. Purchase their furniture and have it delivered. Most people won't do that...but the option will exist for those that want to.
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A lot of what IKEA sells compact into just a smallish box, or they are decor items that are small in and of themselves. For example, they sell wall art, but it comes in a tube with the pieces for the frame inside. You then snap together the frame, unroll the print and staple it yourself around the frame. They also have items like candlesticks made from flat pieces of metal that you piece together to make the three dimensions. It is hard to explain, but really a very sizeable amount of their merchandise, even big stuff is actually paged in a carryable box. When I went to the IKEA in Atlanta (which has a parking deck, by the way, not all surface parking), the items we bought were small decor items that fit in 3 or 4 plastic bags. There is no reason that type of store could not be transit supportive. Not to mention, people who have smaller cars might really benefit from the transit, as it can actually fit. I bought a larger piece from Overstock Market on Morehead that didn't fit in my car, so I took it home using the Gold Rush, as I could fit it in the door and carry it the rest of the way home.

I ABSOLUTELY agree with metro and U/L that we should press the city council to not simply bend over for Crescent and IKEA. If I sat on city council, I would be demanding IKEA put money where their mouth is on eco-friendliness. I'd want to see an orientation that puts the building directly on the street with walkability to N Tryon's planned LRT station. I'd demand a green roof to offset the deforestation of the area that would happen for stormwater. I'd demand shade trees in the parking lot.

No matter what, though, I'm certain that the siteplan initially posted for this site would have a transit supporting effect (if, in fact, we get transit nearby), even with a minimally urban design. That is because it is only about 700 yards, a 5-minute walk, from the Rocky River LRT station on Tryon, (which is the same distance as 5 blocks in downtown Charlotte for comparison).

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IKEA does offer home delivery, so it would be possible for someone to ride the LRT up to the City Blvd station and walk to the store. Purchase their furniture and have it delivered. Most people won't do that...but the option will exist for those that want to.

At the very least IKEA could switch their parking lot and building around so that the building fronts City Blvd. This would make it easier for those that would chose the 15min walk from the City Blvd LRT station.

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