Yeah I know 10 years and counting

 

 

It seems IKEA are slowly placing down their digital foundations for New Zealand some ten years after their abortive attempt to set up a store in Mt Wellington. I say abortive as the resource consents under the legacy era (Auckland City Council) hung up IKEA establishing due to traffic generation (Parking Minimums will do that).

Ever since there have been rumours and whispers but I say like Westfield who last upgraded Manukau Mall in 2008, the Global Financial Crisis spannered a lot of developments (developments only coming back on stream now including mall upgrades) including IKEA making another attempt.

 

Now with the Unitary Plan in place and parking minimums somewhat relaxed (subject to appeals in the Courts) establishing an IKEA should be a more straight forward exercise.

The catch is where?

 

 

According to news from Australia when H&M were in the process of establishing themselves at Sylvia Park, IKEA had stated that they were looking at one of their standard Super Stores more than one of their Metro-class outlets known in Hong Kong (an IKEA at the bottom of an apartment tower). So we are looking at over 6,000m2 although overseas the standard is 20,000m2 (a bit big for NZ).

For a size comparison:

 

The lower cyan section is 8,700m2 with the northern section 5,800m2. Manukau Mall (not including the annex on the eastern side) is 37,000m2 (3.7ha) and is the second largest mall in terms of retailers at 199 (Sylvia is 208). IKEA if they wished can do double storey on the 8,700m2 site giving a total floor area of 17,400m2 or just under half the size of the mall has now.

Given Manukau is a Metropolitan Centre under the Unitary Plan any IKEA site in Manukau needs to be mixed use which can be done as shown here in France: IKEA, Apartments and a Park All-in-One? France Was Able to Do It.

 

As for logistics warehousing? Wiri given the land availability, closeness to Manukau as well as closeness to rail and motorway routes to distribute the goods including for online delivery.

 

So IKEA coming? Should see soon enough.