I’ve long lamented two lacks of the Denver Metro Area, both due to trucking and warehouse distribution issues. You see, Denver is relatively isolated, as metropolitan areas go. You have to go quite some distance to get to another city of really decent (and revenue-supporting) size, so some businesses that depend on certain supply chain and transportation efficiencies have been missing from the Denver Metro Area.
And now … there’s one less faboo chain we’re missing.
IKEA is coming to Colorado.
Not only is it coming to Colorado, not only is it coming to the Denver metro area, not only is it coming to the south end of the metro area, not only is it coming to my city, it’s going to be about a 5 minute drive away.
While the opening date has not yet been determined, officials announced Tuesday that the new store will be located in Centennial, just west of Interstate 25 and north of Park Meadows Mall. The building will be located south of Dry Creek and north of County Line Road.
The iconic blue and yellow complex will occupy 400,000 square feet on 13.5 acres and will have two levels, a restaurant and 1,700 parking spaces.
Currently, the nearest IKEA stores are located in Draper, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City and in Tempe, Ariz., so officials think the Denver-area store will draw thousands of people from all over the Rocky Mountain West.
While we are a bit beyond the “I’m going to furnish my apartment in IKEA” stage, they have loads of keen home items that I expect we will, over time, spend many kroner on.
IKEA said it gets phone calls on a daily basis from Colorado residents asking for a store in Colorado.
I was … well, it was actually an e-mail / web message, not a phone call … but I was one of those boosters. Now we just need to get Trader Joe’s to get with the program …