Construction workers get started on America’s largest IKEA 

Californian fans of Swedish meatballs and flatpack furniture rejoice: workers have got started on Ikea’s largest American store, right on your doorstep.

The new store in Burbank will be a staggering 456,000 sq ft – or about the size of eight football fields – and include 50 ‘inspirational’ room settings, as well as three model home interiors.

For those less keen on choosing which color Billy bookshelf they will be adding to their collection, there is a 600-seater restaurant serving those all important meatballs, and plenty of coffee.

Burbank’s new store, one of 40 in the States, will also offer ‘a larger quantity of the nearly 10,000 exclusively designed items’.

But despite the mammoth size, this store doesn’t even make it into the top five largest Ikea’s in the world.

The crown for the world’s biggest store goes to the 640,000 sq ft shop in Seoul, South Korea.

With stores this size, it is unsurprising that the flatpack kings are responsible for one per cent of the world’s wood consumption.

However, the Swedish furniture giants also pride themselves on their green credentials, with 700,000 solar panels helping power their stores, as well as replacing their bulbs with low carbon lighting.

And this new building will be no different, with its own solar energy system on top of the roof.

Lars Petersson, IKEA US president, said he hoped the new offering – opening in spring 2017 – would provide an ‘improved’ experience for existing customers, as well as ‘introduce the latest version of the unique IKEA concept to Southern Californians who value good design, good function and affordable prices, but have not yet had the chance to visit an IKEA store.’

source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3224901/That-s-one-heck-flat-pack-Construction-workers-started-America-s-largest-IKEA-staggering-456-000-sq-ft.html