- By Greg Wong | Examiner staff writer
- Aug 8, 2023 Updated 21 hrs ago (SFExaminer.com)
Ikea, a store that city officials are banking on being a key catalyst for The City’s downtown recovery, finally has an opening date.
After multiple delays, the Swedish furniture giant will open its first San Francisco warehouse on Aug. 23, Ikea announced on Tuesday.
But this shop, located at 945 Market St., will be different from Ikea’s usual spacious depots, like its other Bay Area locations in Emeryville and East Palo Alto.
Instead, the 52,000 square-foot space will sell products uniquely tailored to fit the needs of San Francisco urbanites, with a focus on “affordability,” “small-space living” and “city living,” officials said in a statement.
The three-level store will feature delis, selling Ikea’s famed Swedish meatballs along with Swedish fish.
The San Francisco store will also have a program to buy and resell previously used Ikea products, and a home delivery service for larger items like couches and bookshelves.
“We are so excited to open the doors of our new IKEA store to our neighbors in the San Francisco area,” Arda Akalin, Ikea San Francisco Market Manager, said in a statement. “We appreciate the excitement and support from the community and can’t wait for our customers to experience the new store full of affordable home furnishings and solutions that reflect who San Franciscans are and how they live.”
The store will be the first business to open inside a multi-story building that Ingka Centres, Ikea’s holding company, purchased two years ago. The mall, which Ikea is branding as a “meeting place,” will also be home to a food court, retail shops, and a top-floor co-working office space.
The 250,000 square-foot complex is nestled in the heart of The City’s mid-Market region, which has been at the center of discourse about San Francisco’s post-pandemic recovery and the site of multiple high-profile organized retail thefts the last few years.
Recently, multiple prominent retailers have either left or announced plans to leave the area, including the Westfield Mall, Coco Republic — an Australian competitor to Ikea — and a Whole Foods just two blocks away from where the new Ikea will be.
City officials, some of whom will take part in a ribbon cutting ceremony on opening day, hope Ikea’s launch will boost ongoing efforts to revitalize the downtown corridor.
“The arrival of @IKEA is great news for The City’s economic recovery that will bring local jobs and excitement to the Union Square area,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed tweeted. “We are thrilled to welcome IKEA to be part of San Francisco’s future.”
The store had originally planned to open in fall of 2021, but underwent a series of delays due to permit and supply-chain issues and concerns about security, according to the San Francisco Standard.
