Dive Brief:
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Last week, Swedish home furnishings retailer Ikea broke ground on a 351,000-square-foot location in Las Vegas, which also will open in 2016 and will employ 300 people, according to Vegas Inc., a business publication. The Vegas store will become Ikea’s 42nd U.S. location.
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The furniture giant will also open its largest U.S. store in Burbank, CA, in 2016.
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Ikea will demolish 22 buildings on South San Fernando Boulevard to make room for the 470,000-square foot building, which will replace its 25-year-old store that measures about half the size of the new one, about a mile away.
Dive Insight:
The Las Vegas store is being hailed as a salve for the city’s struggling construction industry. Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval said at the groundbreaking that the recession hit construction harder than other industries. He called the new store “a perfect fit into this community in this state,” noting it will put construction crews back to work in “quality jobs.”
Ikea reportedly had its eye on the Las Vegas market for a decade but was waiting for the city’s population to top 2 million.
