Ikea coming to Jacksonville

[I-10east]

^^^Yeah, I remember this talk ad nausem, along with Saks, and other higher population stores.

[fsquid]

no worries about parking Nazis with Ikea, they find a big piece of land and make their own place.  They even built their own highway exit at the Charlotte one.

[KenFSU]

Seems like a reasonable, shockingly honest and straighforward answer. I appreciate his bluntness. If an Ikea is prohibitively expensive and cost ineffecient in a market this size, it's unwise to build here. It's not a personal affront on the city.

[CityLife]

Who cares. What is the big deal about this place? We need to double our population? Charlotte and Austin are not double our population according to the numbers above.

They aren't solely looking at metro populations, but instead the trade area of a location. So you pick a spot and draw a radius around it for 40 or 60 miles. Charlotte's CSA is actually 2.6 million, so they likely easily meet the 2 million requirement.

Think about it this way, if you put an IKEA in northern St. Johns County, you could probably even get a little bit of Daytona/Ormond Beach included in the trade area.

except Daytona is probably already counted in the Orlando IKEA store's trade area...especially after they built a store in east Tampa, which probably siphons customers from the Lakeland area

I wasn't being literal. Just used that as an example of how trade areas can stretch beyond metro areas. However, Daytona is 61 miles from the Ikea in Orlando. So they likely count South/West Daytona, Deland, New Smyrna, etc in their trade zone. While we would possibly get Flagler, North Daytona, Ormond Beach, and Palatka in ours.

[simms3]

Not that Ikea is going after a wealthy demographic and it probably has an interesting set of boxes to check before it enters a market, population aside, but let's take a look at Jacksonville and step back here.

In some cities' cases the sum of its parts is greater than the bottom line.  To the comment above, Austin may not be 2x larger than Jacksonville.  Go visit.  It feels 3x larger.  There is spectacular wealth there.  Apartments downtown are renting for what apartments along Brickell in Miami are renting for, to 25-35 year olds of course.  There is UT Austin.  The general population is wealthy and educated.  None of this holds true for Jacksonville, which is more akin to Tulsa really (in size, too).

MetroJacksonville has analyzed metro and city densities of peer and even larger southern cities like Atlanta and found in some ways Jacksonville is denser and larger.  On paper that may be true.  Go visit Nashville or Charlotte and try to tell me Jacksonville is in some way larger.  Those cities are easily 2x if not more larger than Jacksonville and check A LOT more boxes.

It's similar to the way Atlanta is "larger" than Boston or San Francisco where I am now, but not really.  The latter two cities may have fewer people than sprawling metro Atlanta, but let's face it each is at least "2x as large".  London and Chicago are equal on paper, but let's face it London's more of a peer to NYC than Chicago.

On paper maybe Jacksonville checks a few boxes (not on the wealth side as that is all spread out between river and beach and shopping habits of the wealthy in Jacksonville and actual incomes of the wealthy in Jacksonville are a lot less than the size and appearances of their houses make them appear).  Anyway, so numbers get some retailers and investors to visit, but when they arrive they have to question their own numbers because the city feels soooo small and thus instincts not to invest any money override anything they find on paper.

Ok, now continue on.  Ikea's not coming so what.  (BTW I have been buying Ikea furniture for 6 years and have made my bed last that long with no problems - through 2 moves with deconstruction and reconstruction!)

[Debbie Thompson]

Who cares about Ikea?  If you want Ikea furniture that bad, it isn't that far to Orlando.  Who wants the traffic hassles I run into in Orlando to get an Ikea?

[duvaldude08]

For the first time, I went on Ikea's website and I was not very impressed. Actually I was disappointed. So them not wanting to expand here=no hurt feelings on my part

[fsujax]

I am just shocked that 7-11 even wants to be in this market. what were they thinking? hell, we might as well be Pahokee.

[CityLife]

Who cares about Ikea?

Uhhh. A lot of people. It would be pretty high up on the list of stores that middle class people in Jacksonville want, but don't have (if not #1).

IKEA is a lot more than a furniture store too...

[CityLife]

I am just shocked that 7-11 even wants to be in this market. what were they thinking? hell, we might as well be Pahokee.

Are you seriously comparing freaking 7-11 with IKEA?

Scary..

[fsujax]

I am joking! city life. going off of Simms post. Sarcasm.

[copperfiend]

I go to IKEA everytime I visit Orlando, which is usually two or three times a year. I would go to one here but for the sake of my bank account, probably better we don't have one.

[ariesjow]

Hi guys. I'm a Nashville urban enthusiast who has been perusing Metro Jacksonville recently. While I'm not very tech-savvy at the moment, I would ultimately like to put together a forum like this one for the Nashville enthusiast who are pretty segmented among Urban Planet, Skyscrapercity, etc. at the moment. I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce myself and chime in on IKEA if you didn't mind.

Although I'm not obsessed with IKEA and generally find them to be a step below West Elm and a couple below Crate & Barrel in terms of quality, they are undeniably one of those big boxes that I consider "destination retail." From that standpoint alone, I really like what they can do for retail in an area and want one in Nashville. We've been waiting for an IKEA in the Nashville metro for a while now and have heard we were not a good candidate for years as well. IKEA rumors started to take a more positive tone when Boyle, a local developer, teamed up with Northwestern Mutual who owns quite a bit of property in the North Gulch area here.

Boyle and NW Mutual want to develop a little over 30 acres in this area into sort of a mini-Atlantic Station (ATL)-type mixed-use development with anchors such as IKEA, an urban Publix or an urban Target. An article in the local paper had stated that all three were in negotiations with the developers. Much to our chagrin, Boyle and NW Mutual have been extremely tight-lipped about the planning of this development since announcing plans last December. Buildings on the site have started coming down despite the silence from the developers. We're all very curious about what's going on behind the scenes. I've heard rumors that Target may be out, but nothing on IKEA and Publix. Nashville is just really now around that 2 million within a 40 to 60 mile radius that IKEA looks for with the Clarksville-Ft. Campbell metro under 50 miles away. I will definitely let you guys know if we hear positive news about IKEA in the near future as I imagine that would bode well for one in Jacksonville soon too.

[wsansewjs]

Hi guys. I'm a Nashville urban enthusiast who has been perusing Metro Jacksonville recently. While I'm not very tech-savvy at the moment, I would ultimately like to put together a forum like this one for the Nashville enthusiast who are pretty segmented among Urban Planet, Skyscrapercity, etc. at the moment. I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce myself and chime in on IKEA if you didn't mind.

Although I'm not obsessed with IKEA and generally find them to be a step below West Elm and a couple below Crate & Barrel in terms of quality, they are undeniably one of those big boxes that I consider "destination retail." From that standpoint alone, I really like what they can do for retail in an area and want one in Nashville. We've been waiting for an IKEA in the Nashville metro for a while now and have heard we were not a good candidate for years as well. IKEA rumors started to take a more positive tone when Boyle, a local developer, teamed up with Northwestern Mutual who owns quite a bit of property in the North Gulch area here.

Boyle and NW Mutual want to develop a little over 30 acres in this area into sort of a mini-Atlantic Station (ATL)-type mixed-use development with anchors such as IKEA, an urban Publix or an urban Target. An article in the local paper had stated that all three were in negotiations with the developers. Much to our chagrin, Boyle and NW Mutual have been extremely tight-lipped about the planning of this development since announcing plans last December. Buildings on the site have started coming down despite the silence from the developers. We're all very curious about what's going on behind the scenes. I've heard rumors that Target may be out, but nothing on IKEA and Publix. Nashville is just really now around that 2 million within a 40 to 60 mile radius that IKEA looks for with the Clarksville-Ft. Campbell metro under 50 miles away. I will definitely let you guys know if we hear positive news about IKEA in the near future as I imagine that would bode well for one in Jacksonville soon too.

Ariesjow,

I would like to extend our warmest and humblest welcome to our MetroJacksonville, and we thank you for your insightful post.

For the Nashville and IKEA situation, that's interesting that if IKEA is actually being built after a full secrecy with the developers and prospective stores.

I wonder if IKEA would give in and actually build one here in Jacksonville IF a developer is willing to compromise / negotiate a deal with IKEA to give them the upper cut and leverage in the market which would sustain a local market capacity to keep IKEA business and continues to grow.

-Josh

[Ocklawaha]

Yeah, take our shipyards property, combine it with the 600' public pier and 'The Jacksonville Quay' with festival seafood, farm and nautical markets, plop an Ikea and Bass Pro on the Bay Street side and jump back and watch it happen! INSTANT SUCCESS!

More about those ideas in an upcoming photo article.

...Otherwise, by all means, welcome to our Nashville neighbor.