IKEA

[Just the facts]

According to IKEA they are shifting from large stand-alone stores surrounded by acres of parking to mixed use development and urban stores. I would prefer something like this.

https://youtu.be/RU6DJZ3DwUU

[Rover]

I think Moore is 100% opposite of their target demographic. If it went south it would go as close to Norman as possible, if not Norman itself.

“Cheap” European furniture won’t sell on 19th street.

This is a north side deal.

This is a “all side” deal.

Instead of over simplistic descriptions of their demographics, here is a fairly simple little bit deeper explanation: https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorial...2Dold%20adults.

[Plutonic Panda]

That’s why Costco went there first, right?

Well I’ve been told something is happening so I guess we’ll see.

[stlokc]

According to IKEA they are shifting from large stand-alone stores surrounded by acres of parking to mixed use development and urban stores. I would prefer something like this.

https://youtu.be/RU6DJZ3DwUU

Great video! (I watched maybe the first five minutes) It goes without saying that OKC is not Toronto, but an urban-format store like this in Midtown would be a win on so many levels.

[Plutonic Panda]

Great video! (I watched maybe the first five minutes) It goes without saying that OKC is not Toronto, but an urban-format store like this in Midtown would be a win on so many levels.

The amount of delusion on this board is mind boggling. Maybe a Midtown store would be successful but not without a sh!t ton of parking so why build it there in the first place? I agree the NW part of the city would make the most sense. But then again I have next to no experience in developing these types of projects so what the hell do I know… other than the fact OKC is a car oriented city and developments here have zero relevance with those in Toronto.

I’ll also be interested to see if IKEA keeps up with these urban developments with their new stores. Target recently announced they will be moving away from their City, smaller format stores and go back to big box retail which is what makes the most sense and is better.

[Just the facts]

The IKEA in midtown Atlanta has parking under the building. What is mind boggling is hearing the same people complain that OKC isn't "big city" enough and then make excuses for why OKC isn't "big city" enough. No OKC isn't Toronto, but it isn't Amarillo either. It wasn't that long ago OKC apartments didn't have parking garages or underground parking either, but here we are today with both.

[bombermwc]

This is a “all side” deal.

Instead of over simplistic descriptions of their demographics, here is a fairly simple little bit deeper explanation: https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorial...2Dold%20adults.

Yeah I kind of laughed at the first comment about 19th. Moore is a mix of everything. There's farms to multi million dollar homes down to terrible apartments, and everything in-between. It's a microcosm of the rest of the metro, squeezed into the Moore limits (extending to far southwest OKC). I live in Moore and I'm not making some grand push for it to be here. I'm not going to be making weekly trips to Ikea or anything. BUUUUUUT, what I can say is that there is a large plot of empty land in the remaining Frits Farm area behind the fire station (just west of CostCo). It's not right on 19th so it doesn't have to eat up the main frontage retail space. But it is the next row over (like you see with a lot of developments with a mix of large and small) in an area that can absorb a lot of surface parking because that's what it's designed for. And it's VERY close to I-35. Now would I love the added traffic on 19th? Heck no cause good grief it's insane already.

19th is not all the way down to Norman, so it saves another 10 minute drive (and yeah that's not much of anything) for the north siders if they want to come visit. But it also gets it REALLLY close to Norman and the 30k OU students there. If you're driving from Stilly to Ikea, you're not going to change your mind if it's on the north side or Moore. You're already driving 45m to an hour, so i dont think they care. Same for Tulsa. It could just as easily be out towards Yukon to be honest. Norman, of course is also just as practical of a choice in University North.

What we don't want, is for it to be somewhere that eats up super valuable land for a bunch of parking, that could have been something else. So it make zero sense for anything with 5 miles of downtown...at least. Do you want to put it up near Fidelity near Dolese? It's got a lot of land available that hasn't been developing for oh 50 years. Yeah there's some pretty aggressive stuff going in there now, but this could be a pretty big anchor there.

My only thought here is that there are a lot of places it can go besides just up on Memorial (which is what people on this forum love to default to). And those locations make sense and are not just out of my rear end. Memorial is actually somewhere i don't think it should go because of the amount of space its going to take up. It would either have to eat something that's existing today, or go further out east or west to have enough free space to build. There are just too many other areas with swaths of land, that are more convenient for a lot more of the demographic.

[Just the facts]

I always start with asking, "What is good urbanism" and then go from there. If it was up to me I would build it some where in East Bricktown, preferably on the parking lot between Oklahoma Blvd and I-40. Great freeway visibility, central location, fits with IKEA's desire for more urban stores, and could be built over parking.

[chssooner]

I always start with asking, "What is good urbanism" and then go from there. If it was up to me I would build it some where in East Bricktown, preferably on the parking lot between Oklahoma Blvd and I-40. Great freeway visibility, central location, fits with IKEA's desire for more urban stores, and could be built over parking.

Why would IKEA need to or want to build downtown? There is plenty of cheaper land on the outskirts. That would be fiscally irresponsible of them to build downtown, on every level. Not even enough residents to try to justify it. It will be near Quail or in Moore. No sense for them to waste money buying expensive downtown land and building up versus cheaper suburban land and building out.

[Rover]

First of all, even if IKEA is looking at OKC, we don't know which of their 3 tier platforms they are looking at. The platform they would use helps dictate where in a locality they would land.

For those who want to take the topic up seriously there are a number of case studies available on line regarding location strategies, etc. that IKEA is using and how it and their designs are evolving . This speculation is just idle chit chat at this point and based on no specific IKEA plans.

[Just the facts]

Why would IKEA need to or want to build downtown? There is plenty of cheaper land on the outskirts. That would be fiscally irresponsible of them to build downtown, on every level. Not even enough residents to try to justify it. It will be near Quail or in Moore. No sense for them to waste money buying expensive downtown land and building up versus cheaper suburban land and building out.

I guess it comes down to what kind of City you want to live in. If you want urban sprawl then build on the suburban fringe and surround your store with large parking lots. If you want an urban city then focus on high density in-fill. You can't do both and not too many discount cities are making the list of desirability.

[mugofbeer]

Please note how IKEA opened a store on Manhattan and it's extreme urbanity only to close it after a short period of time. A store brand like IKEA needs space.

[Just the facts]

Please note how IKEA opened a store on Manhattan and it's extreme urbanity only to close it after a short period of time. A store brand like IKEA needs space.

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-eas...e-company-says

[BDP]

You can't do both and not too many discount cities are making the list of desirability.

To be fair, we are doing both, just in different parts of the city. Which is appropriate, IMO, and just about every city in America does both on some level.

Personally, if I'm living in a city, I, too want good "urbanism" to guide development, but if they put an IKEA on Memorial or in Moore, I can't say that I would see that as a missed opportunity for Oklahoma City to build on the success it has had with cultivating urban minded development over the last few decades. In fact, any IKEA located in OKC over the next, say, 10 years (at least) is going to have to accommodate a great deal of car traffic for it to be successful, So, it would most likely work against urbanization efforts in our central districts, regardless of what format or design they used.

Of course, the worst possible outcome from an urbanization perspective, would be for them to open something like what we see in Moore or on Memorial in the core, but I can't imagine them even wanting to do that.

[HOT ROD]

what about IKEA at Crossroads?

Plenty of Parking. Check
Two interstate highways junction. Check
At the population centre of the metro. state. Check
Infrastructure already exists. Check
Don't have to interfere with the push to urbanize central OKC. Check

The question is whether they'd tear down part of the mall or just build in the parking lot. To me, this is somewhat of an offer they can't refuse for the traditional store IKEA builds (which is what I hope OKC gets.

[bombermwc]

Hadn't thought about that one. Certainly would be a highly visible location and has PLENTY of room to spare. It's not the typical area you would find one. With all those multiple owners of the place, I wonder if this would be overly complicated to make a deal. Like you said, i think it would require demoing part of the building (one of the anchors) and contsructing a new main structure whilst using the existing surface parking.

[David]

IMO you wouldn't want to chain a big new development like an IKEA to a dead property like Crossroads. As a part of a completely redevelopment of the site, sure, but nothing less than that would be appropriate.

[HOT ROD]

sure, I just thought we could add it to our list of potential sites that are somewhat viable for a variety of reasons; some stronger than others, some weaker. We wouldn't have to limit ourselves with just Moore or Memorial Road as choices, IMO.

[bombermwc]

Agreed. I mean everything here is just us spit-balling ideas anyway. It's not like we're in the board room at Ikea making the decision. We're just having some fun with our guesses on what could be.

[midtownokcer]

Please note how IKEA opened a store on Manhattan and it's extreme urbanity only to close it after a short period of time. A store brand like IKEA needs space.

San Fran is close to opening an 87,000 sq ft. store on Market Street, just down the street from where a Whole Foods just closed up after just a year in operation.

[midtownokcer]

Anyone see Steve Lackmeyer's thoughts about OKC getting an IKEA? Initially, he said that in his research he found that Nashville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and OKC are the major markets in the US without one. Cincy and Indy both have them in their metros. He then mentioned Scottsdale as a market that would probably get one, which is weird for obvious reasons with Phoenix having one already. When he was questioned about it, he quickly edited the article. Just thought it was a little weird.

[bombermwc]

Lackmeyer just spouts whatever BS he thinks will get people to click on his so-called talks and articles. He's so far past having accurate information or being able to write a trustworthy article, i'm not sure why they still employ him. Anytime I see an article on the Jokelahoman now that actually does have merit, it doesn't seem to be written by him.

History is really his area and not current events. His view on current events is "something is going to happen" like he's Dave from the movie 2010 or something. I can't tell you what it is, but it will be "wonderful". Lame....

[TornadoKegan]

17 Years later, And We Still have to go to Frisco, TX for IKEA and This hasn't came true yet. Though we may finally have some promising Information regarding a Oklahoma City IKEA in 2023. was this a joke or something IKEA Said and never fell through with?

[TornadoKegan]

Why would IKEA need to or want to build downtown? There is plenty of cheaper land on the outskirts. That would be fiscally irresponsible of them to build downtown, on every level. Not even enough residents to try to justify it. It will be near Quail or in Moore. No sense for them to waste money buying expensive downtown land and building up versus cheaper suburban land and building out.

Yeah There are several possible locations. North Edmond, Quail Springs Mall Area, South Moore, Along the East / West Connector, Yukon or Mustang. many options, Only one will get it

[midtownokcer]

17 Years later, And We Still have to go to Frisco, TX for IKEA and This hasn't came true yet. Though we may finally have some promising Information regarding a Oklahoma City IKEA in 2023. was this a joke or something IKEA Said and never fell through with?

We don't even have an official "pick-up" center like they do in Albuquerque, Nashville, and Lubbock. Granted, ABQ and LBK are 5+ hours from the nearest IKEA, but Nashville is about the same distance away from Memphis that OKC is from Frisco. It's also weird that Memphis, which is a lot smaller than Nashville in terms of metro population got one before Nashville did. I would think that OKC would have gotten one before Memphis due to its similar metro population and its proximity to Tulsa with another ~1 million metro population.