IKEA expands store in central Texas

Conshohocken, Pa.-based IKEA announced plans to expand its Round Rock, Texas, store, adding 54,000 sq. ft. and more parking.

The Round Rock store in central Texas will expand from 252,000 sq. ft. to 306,000 sq. ft. Construction activity will begin this month, with an expected completion in summer 2012. The store will remain open during construction.

The size of the store's warehouse capacity is "less than ideal" currently, the company said.

“Extending the store’s self-serve furniture area so it can hold more products will allow us to improve the shopping experience, to meet our customers’ needs more easily and to enhance our ability to keep lowering prices,” said manager Gerd Diewald. Increased goods availability and the opportunity for the store to inventory more stock will result in transport savings passed on to customers, according to IKEA.

The project will include extending the self-serve furniture area (where shoppers collect flat-packed furniture to take home on the same day), relocating customer service functions to the newly built part of the store, and constructing a three-level parking structure to offset spaces eliminated by converting the northwest section of the parking lot into the building. Plans call for 1,200 parking spaces available on site.