Construction is finally underway for Wisconsin’s first and highly-anticipated IKEA store, which will be located in Oak Creek.
City officials and representatives from the Swedish retailer broke ground Thursday on the 291,000-square-foot store, which will include 1,000 parking spaces on about 30 acres of land owned by Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., northwest of West Drexel Avenue and I-94.
Construction is expected to be complete in summer 2018.
“Having landed IKEA is the equivalent is having landed an NBA team for Oak Creek, said Oak Creek Mayor Dan Bukiewicz. “This anchors the west side of I-94 and we have Northwestern Mutual to thank for that vision.”
Chicago-based Pepper Construction has been named construction manager for the IKEA Oak Creek store project.
Locally, Milwaukee-based Graef has been hired for civil engineering, Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren S.C. is serving as the local land use counsel and CBRE brokerage for site selection support.
“This location will help bring the unique IKEA family-friendly shopping experience closer to many Milwaukee-area customers who currently can shop only at IKEA stores elsewhere or online,” said Lars Petersson, IKEA U.S. president. “The store also will attract new customers from throughout Wisconsin who value good design, good function and affordable prices, but have not had a chance yet to shop at IKEA.”
