Last summer there seemed to be real movement on the planned IKEA store in Ljubljana’s BTC City, but seasoned observers knew it wasn’t worth delaying the purchase of a bookshelf, sofa or lamp, that they should continue to source alternative meatballs and buy their own pencils and tape measures.
The first reports of the Swedish furniture giant setting up shop on the sunny side of the alps came in 2014, although Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković later claimed that talks began in 2005. The story then dragged on for years, with the opening always about 18 months away, after just this last bureaucratic hurdle was jumped.
There was thus no great excitement in June 2019 when it was reported that IKEA had finally obtained the permits needed to start construction, since the same story noted an ongoing dispute about an access road and that the store would open, as usual, in about 18 months.
But the long wait for affordable Swedish design in a big box setting – some 15 years according to Mayor Janković – will soon be over. As the following videos show, the building, façade and roof are now completed. The work is now focused on interior installations and external elements, including the distinctive IKEA navigation tower, and is being carried out under full corona conditions.
Take a look inside with Cas Lachaert, Market Manager, IKEA Slovenia. Two drone videos are shown below that give a good idea of the scale of the project in BTC CityIn summary, the place is 34,000m2, will offer 9,500 products and have 52 room settings, while the restaurant will serve both Swedish and Slovenian food – perhaps a klobasa? Plants will be on the roof along with solar panels that should provide most of the power the store needs, making Ljubljana’s IKEA one of the greenest in the world.
No word yet on the opening date, but sometime in the autumn seems certain, in just over 18 weeks.
