Ikea drops plans for Fort Worth location, citing changing retail environment

Swedish retailer IKEA has announced plans for a Grand Prairie store.

Citing a “rapidly changing retail environment,” Ikea said June 8 that it will not move forward with plans for a store in north Fort Worth.

Ikea announced plans for a Fort Worth location in February 2017, saying it expected to open the store in 2019. The store, about 289,000 square feet, was to be the anchor for a mixed-use development at Interstate 35W and N. Tarrant Parkway that included at least 75,000 square feet of Class A office space, 48,000 square feet of restaurant space and 66,000 square feet of retail/commercial space.

The developer, NTP 35 LP, received incentives from the City of Fort Worth, worth up to $18 million over 15 years.

Ikea CEO Jesper Brodin said in a recent interview that the Swedish firm is looking to expand to more urban city centers and invest in more e-commerce and services for consumers. Because of that shift in direction, some of the company’s expansion plans could change, company officials said in an e-mail.

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The company recently that plans for locations in North Carolina and Antioch, Tennessee have been halted.

A new Texas location in San Antonio began construction in March and is set to open next year. In North Texas, the Frisco location opened in 2005 and the Grand Prairie location opened in 2017, hiring about 300 workers.