Oak Creek Ikea Breaks Ground On New Store

OAK CREEK, WI — Welcome to day one of Ikea in Oak Creek.

The new store is now under construction on a 29-acre parcel of land on the Northwestern Mutual property just west of I-94 and just north of Drexel Ave. and South of Rawson Ave.

“Having landed IKEA is the equivalent is having landed an NBA team for Oak Creek, said Oak Creek Mayor Dan Bukiewicz as reported by the Biz Times. “This anchors the west side of I-94 and we have Northwestern Mutual to thank for that vision.”

Chicago-based Pepper Construction is the construction manager for the IKEA Oak Creek store project. Milwaukee-based Graef has been hired for civil engineering, Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren S.C. is serving as the local land use counsel and CBRE brokerage for site selection support, the Biz Times reports.

Here are a few details about the store:

• store will be 1 story tall
• will be approximately 295,000 square feet.
• 1,200 parking spots
• 50 showrooms
• 3 model homes
• self-service area
• 300-seat cafeteria
• supervised children play area
• preferred parking for families
• will employ about 250 people
• will generate 500 construction jobs.

Former Mayor Scaffidi said - at the time of the original Ikea announcement - that according to a 2012 survey of Oak Creek residents, when asked what residents would like to see, they reported wanting two things: more restaurants, and IKEA.

The former mayor went on to say at that time that Northwestern Mutual approached him about the idea of bringing IKEA to Oak Creek - an idea he welcomed. "I think this is going to be a tremendous addition to the city," he said.

image via ikea