Ikea Breaks Ground for New Store Near Chicago

Sept. 14, 2004
The 310,000 square foot IKEA Bolingbrook will include 1,300 parking spaces and will be built on 21-acres in this suburb southwest of Chicago

BOLINGBROOK, Ill., -- With company representatives, village officials and community leaders on-hand, IKEA, the world's leading home furnishings retailer, today officially broke ground for its new Bolingbrook, IL store, opening Fall 2005. The 310,000 square foot IKEA Bolingbrook will include 1,300 parking spaces and will be built on 21-acres in this suburb southwest of Chicago.

To be built at the northwest corner of the I-355 North-South Tollway and Boughton Road, IKEA Bolingbrook will be the second IKEA store and restaurant destination in the Chicagoland area. (IKEA Schaumburg opened in 1998 and is known for drawing customers from throughout the Midwest.) Besides 500 construction jobs, 400 coworkers will join the IKEA family when the new Bolingbrook store opens.

"We are excited to break ground in Bolingbrook for our second Chicagoland store," said Pat Smith, real estate director for IKEA. "From the success of IKEA Schaumburg, we know there are IKEA customers in the area who would visit us more frequently if there was a store closer to them. When IKEA Bolingbrook opens, it will also attract new customers -- particularly those from the Southwest suburbs -- who have been tempted to shop in Schaumburg, but have not done so."

In addition to nearly 10,000 exclusively designed items, IKEA Bolingbrook will feature four model homes, 60 room settings, a supervised children's play area, as well as a 300-seat restaurant serving Swedish specialties such as meatballs with lingonberries and salmon platters. Other family-friendly features will include a 'Children's IKEA' area in the showroom, baby care rooms, preferred parking and play areas throughout the store. IKEA Bolingbrook will differ slightly from IKEA Schaumburg, which was built as a store designed originally to serve the entire Midwest. The company since has modified and developed a prototypical store design and layout now being built as IKEA expands in the U.S.