This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Work began yesterday on a new and bigger IKEA in Burbank expected to be the country's largest.
Officials from Burbank and the Swedish home-furnishing giant broke ground Tuesday on what will eventually be a new 456,000-square-foot store, reports City News Service. Fans of Swedish meatballs and therapeutic DIY-furniture-assembly will have even more room to roam as the megalithic new store will be twice as big as the original 242,000-square-foot location built in 1990 located about a mile down San Fernando Road from the new site near the 5 freeway.
Once completed, the new IKEA near San Fernando Boulevard and Providencia Avenue will be the largest in the country—roughly 6,000 square feet larger than the current record-holder in Schaumburg, Illinois, according to the Burbank Leader. Earlier this year, crews cleared 19 buildings that had been used by Western Studio Services—a storage company for TV and film props and sets—to make way for the new store.
According to Curbed LA, the bigger store will accommodate better parking, which will include 1,700 spaces, and better access to around 10,000 IKEA items, including everyone's favorite BILLY bookcase. There will also be "50 inspirational room-settings, three model home interiors, a supervised children's play area, and a larger (600-seat) restaurant serving Swedish specialties." So, yes plenty more seats to enjoy those coveted Swedish meatballs.
The new, gargantuan IKEA is expected to open in the spring of 2017, when you'll hopefully have plenty of spare time to get lost in the sprawling store.
Currently the largest IKEA in the world is just outside Seoul, South Korea, a beast of a store coming in at 635,070 square feet. That one is nearly as big as the Louvre museum and even beat out the 594,167 square feet of Stockholm's own previous record holder.
