IKEA Coming to Milwaukee!!
Words cannot express my excitement when I received my subscription to the Business Journal in the mail today and the headline was:
IKEA likes Milwaukee
In the words of Joey Tribbiani, YEA THEY DO!!
Unfortunately they don’t have the article online, so I can’t link to it, but the basics are that IKEA has hired a Milwaukee real estate company to find a site in the Milwaukee area so they can build a 215,000 sq ft store. Giddy up!
“Ikea is interested in the Milwaukee area because of the many southeastern Wisconsin residents who frequent the company’s store in Schaumburg, Ill… the Schaumburg store, which is about 300,000 square feet and three stories tall, “is exploding” with business.”
They listed a bunch of different locations that they are looking at, including “a site between downtown Milwaukee and west along Interstate 94,” the former Northridge Mall side (although IKEA says that is not centrally located enough), the Park East corridore, Menomonee Valley, Wauwatosa, Oak Creek and Franklin. They also suggested Pabst Farms in Oconomowoc.
Needless to say, it will be nice to be able to go to IKEA whenever I want, instead of having to make the big trek down to Chicago to check out the store.
I vote for the Park East corridor, although Oconomowoc would be the smarter choice because it would draw more folks from Madison.
Comment by Heraldblog — 5/27/2005 @ 11:20 am
Where is the Park East Corridor?
Comment by Tim — 5/27/2005 @ 12:47 pm
It’s that big empty landmass downtown where they tore down the freeway a few years ago. Just North of the Bradley Center.
And while it would be nice to put it in Park East, I’m not sure they’ll have enough room…
Comment by Tara — 5/27/2005 @ 1:40 pm
You’re a big empty landmass.
Comment by Tim — 5/27/2005 @ 2:55 pm
I agree that the Park East corrider isn’t large enough to accommodate an Ikea. It’s barely big enough to accommodate the traffic that this site gets.
Comment by Heraldblog — 6/3/2005 @ 6:08 pm
Oconomowoc would be a great site, due to the proximity to Madison and Ikea would bring a great deal of much needed retail into the area.
Comment by Gloria — 7/30/2005 @ 11:24 pm