IKEA in Croatia by 2012

The first IKEA store in Croatia will open its doors to customers by 2012 in Zagreb, in the municipality of Rugvica. On a plot of 404 thousand square meters, a shopping center of 390 thousand square meters will be opened with two above-ground floors and four underground, writes slobodnadalmacija.hr.

The footprint area is 193,000 square meters, of which 30 thousand square meters will be occupied by IKEA itself, while the next 122 thousand square meters will be allocated to a general-type shopping center, and the remaining area will accommodate 8,150 parking spaces.  Such construction was made possible by Rugvica’s amendment of the Spatial and Urban Planning Act, which directed the development of the municipality and that part of Zagreb towards large infrastructure projects – emphasizes Igor Štefanac, spokesperson for IKEA in Croatia.  By the time of opening, the total investment for the IKEA store and shopping center will exceed 2.1 billion kuna or about 300 million euros. So far, 250 million kuna, or 34 million euros, has been invested in the project, which includes the purchase of land at the Ivanja Reka junction.

At the construction site, 700 workers from the construction industry will work daily, and after completion, 2,750 jobs will be created, of which 250 people will be employed at IKEA itself, and another 2,500 in the accompanying shopping center, which will be synergistically connected. The Swedish retail giant in Croatia shows interest in opening two more stores and shopping centers, and according to plans, the next mega furniture store should be located in Dalmatia, near Split. Work is already underway on this, reveals Štefanac, adding that the company is currently looking for suitable land that would be acceptable not only in size but also in terms of price and future development plans for Split. As a third potential location, according to somewhat longer-term plans, the area of the city of Rijeka has been selected. (www.slobodnadalmacija.hr)