Ikea is to open its new superstore in Dublin on Monday July 27th, the company announced today.
The company said the store, which will employ up to 500 people, was been largely complete since last month will include a restaurant, crèche and parking for 1,500 cars.
The opening date has been dependent on the completion of the upgrade around the Ballymun junction on the M50. The completion of these works was a condition in the planning granted by An Bord Pleanála.
The 30,500 square-metre building has been erected on a site bordering the M50 and St Margaret’s Road in north Dublin.
Ikea has been frustrated by the slow pace of these works – especially since the store is complete – and chief executive Anders Dahlvig told the Irish Times: "I don't think we have ever had a store ready and operative that has to stand idle. We invested in all this infrastructure, we put millions and millions of euro into this and then we have the frustration of having this long negotiation with the road authority".
Ikea has been in discussions with the National Roads Authority (NRA) in recent months seeking a “guaranteed” completion date for the M50 upgrade so it could decide when to open the Dublin store.
The NRA is concerned at the impact the opening of the Ikea store on M50 traffic volumes and it opposed the project at an planning hearing in March 2007.
NRA documents released under the Freedom of Information Act state its “board agreed that it is not possible to guarantee a completion date and that should Ikea wish to accelerate the upgrade works at Junction 4 (Ballymun), that this should be done at no expense to the NRA”.
According to the NRA documents, the authority will not “raise any objection to the planning authority” if Ikea opens after June 1st this year, even if the upgrade around the Ballymun junction remains incomplete.
Any effort to accelerate the upgrade at that section of the M50 is understood to have an estimated cost of between €10 million to €20 million.
The €110 million development will create 500 full-time retail jobs and the retailer has suggested that it would attract up to 2.75 million customers to its Dublin branch in the first year of opening.
Garry Deakin, store manager, said securing an opening date had become a burning issue for management.
“Our immediate task now is to recruit the full complement of people so that everyone will receive Ikea's extensive training programme and be ready and prepared to welcome our first customers on July 27 next.” he said.
Ballymun Regeneration Ltd has welcomed the news that Ikea will open for business in Ballymun on the July 27th, 2009, and said it was looking forward to the "economic fillip" the new store would bring.
In a statement, Mr Ciarán Murray, managing director, said: "We first started talking to Ikea as far back as 1997 about locating in Ballymun, and it's a great economic boost to have a firm date for the official opening of what will be a very welcome business in the area.
"Local residents can apply for the 500 jobs that the firm will bring to the area and the opening of Ikea will also make Ballymun a destination for people from all over Ireland who will travel to shop here", he added.
Ballymun Regeneration is the Dublin City Council company set up in 1997 to plan and implement a regeneration programme for the area.
Ikea's first Irish store was opened in Belfast in December 2007, and it has 292 stores in 36 countries worldwide.
