IKEA to open Jacksonville store on Southside

Swedish furniture maker IKEA announces Jacksonville store coming in 2017

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Furniture giant IKEA plans to open a store in the Jacksonville area off Interstate 295 and Gate Parkway, the company announced Wednesday.

The store will be located south of the St. Johns Town Center (aerial map below). The announcement caused a buzz on social media Wednesday.

"We don't open stores often, but when we do, we're in it for the long term," an IKEA representative said during the announcement at the JAX Chamber.

IKEA Jacksonville is submitting an application Wednesday for the new store, which will be housed in a 294,000 square-foot building with 1,200 parking spaces.

Mayor Lenny Curry said the company will still have to go through the permitting process, but it's a done deal. As for incentives, Curry said there aren't any yet, but there have been some discussions about it and he's up for negotiating.

"This is huge," Curry said of the IKEA announcement. "There are very few things you can say in a sentence or a word. The headline is IKEA. This will draw, serve not only the demographics in our city, but also draw from out of the state and create jobs."

IKEA will be hiring 250 employees and the construction will require an additional 500 temporary employees.

"IKEA buys our land, so we'll contribute significant sales and property tax to the local community and create good retail synergy," IKEA public affairs manager Joseph Roth said.

IKEA could begin construction on the Jacksonville store as soon as summer 2016, with the store opening planned for fall 2017.

"We will aggressively market this for other opportunities to attract other businesses and other international companies to Jacksonville," Curry said.

There are currently four IKEA locations in Florida but none in North Florida. There are 41 IKEA stores in the U.S. and more than 300 stores worldwide.

The developers said the plot of land off I-295 and Gate Parkway was the ideal location for a Jacksonville store.

"Good access and visibility," Roth said.

"It's a large facility that needs a lot of space and there's few pieces of property that would meet the requirements," said Daniel Davis, president and CEO of JAX Chamber.