November 20, 2009 marked the sod turning at the site of the Tuxedo Yards Redevelopment area where the IKEA store in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada will be located sometime likely in 2012 or 2013. Although the actual IKEA store groundbreaking is potentially years away, site developer Fairweather Properties’ president Michael Nozick broke ground today at the development site with Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz and Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger.

Tuxedo Yards Redevelopment Area

The planned future home of Manitoba’s first IKEA, the Tuxedo Yards Redevelopment area is a plot of land (formerly the CN Intermodal Yards) bordered by the CN Main Line to the north and Kenaston Blvd to the east and which is bisected by Sterling Lyon Parkway. The land, with an assessed value of $5 million dollars (Canadian) is owned by Fairweather Properties; the estimated value of the property after it is fully developed (estimated in 2018) is a whopping 139.5 million.

Thanks goes to ChrisD from ChrisD.ca for permission to embed this video of the groundbreaking ceremony. According to Chris, if you fast forward to 1:15, there’s a chat with the developer:

IKEA Sod Turning Ceremony – Nov. 20, 2009 – Winnipeg, Manitoba from ChrisD.ca on Vimeo.

MMM Group has submitted multiple plans for the ’super-regional commercial destination centre’ which is a fancy way of saying it’s a destination shopping center, i.e. one that will be home to major retail outlets which typically are one per market area, like IKEA. The shopping area has been dubbed Seasons of Tuxedo.

The plans on the table include 1.5 million square feet of commercial space, including the 350,000  ft² (32,500 m² ) IKEA anchor store (already approved), an unnamed and/or undecided 200,000 ft² big-box store as well as two additional stores larger than 140,000 ft² each and several smaller standalone stores.

Development will take place in 3 stages with the first stage including the construction, development and opening of the IKEA anchor store. Phase 2 will begin in the third year and continue through the 8th and will include development of the property North of Sterling Lyon Parkway. The final stage will begin in the fifth year and is west of the first development area that includes the IKEA store. It is expected to be finalized in 2018.

Other potential lessees include a grocery store, a sporting goods / outdoor store, and/or a home improvement store. A 16-screen movie theatre, a 100-room hotel, a 500-unit residential (condo) building plus a 150,000 ft² office park are also in the plans.

IKEA in Canada

IKEA’s foray into the North America market began in 1976 with the opening of the first IKEA in Canada – the first store in Vancouver, also known as IKEA Richmond. There are currently eleven IKEA stores in Canada: two in Alberta, two in British Columbia, five in Ontario and two in Quebec. IKEA Winnipeg will be the first in Manitoba.

IKEA in Winnipeg

IKEA Winnipeg will be the first IKEA store in the Canadian province of Manitoba and will be the largest Canadian IKEA store at an estimated 32,516 m². The site is 27 acres and will expand Winnipeg’s Active Transportation routes (read bike routes) and extend the bus route to include a stop at IKEA. There is little information yet as to the contents of the IKEA store – it is unlikely to break ground before 2011 and will most likely open no earlier than 2013 according to sources. If you find out more about the inside plans for IKEA Winnipeg, let us know!

Must give a hat tip to the City of Winnipeg for their awesome municipal website. Tons of information on the redevelopment project, the plans and prospects for the site: Winnipeg.ca Redevelopment Details (and links to other info).

IKEA Winnipeg Proposed Site Drawings

IKEA Winnipeg Proposed Front Perspective Renderings:

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IKEA Winnipeg Proposed Site Drawing:

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IKEA Winnipeg Proposed Landscaping Plan:

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IKEA Winnipeg Bus Route Proposed Expansion:

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IKEA Winnipeg Active Transportation and Winnipeg Transit Expansion Plan:

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Current IKEA Stores in Canada

Eleven stores currently are open in Canada. IKEA Calgary and IKEA Edmonton are in the province of Alberta, Canada. There are two stores in British Columbia, in and around Vancouver: IKEA Coquitlam and IKEA Richmond (the first IKEA store in North America). Ontario has five IKEA stores, four of which are in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA): IKEA Burlington, IKEA Etobicoke, IKEA North York and IKEA Vaughan. IKEA Ottawa is also in Ontario on the border of the province of Quebec. Quebec has IKEA Boucherville and IKEA Ville St. Laurent in Montreal.

Find out all the information you need to know about the IKEA stores in Canada in the IKEA Store Directory. Find out how to get there, when to go, where to park and who to talk to! More than the IKEA store site has to give you – we have member reviews, offers and pictures to share as well. Want to adopt an IKEA store page? Just let me know!

Tags: chrisd.ca, ikea canada, IKEA Manitoba, IKEA Store Openings, IKEA Winnipeg, Tuxedo Yards Redevelopment Area

This entry was posted on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 11:57 PM by Susan and is filed under IKEA Store News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.