by Adolfo Pesquera
Live Oak (Bexar Co.) – IKEA, the world’s largest home furnishings retailer, announced it will take the lead in a 760,000-square-foot retail development on 91 acres located in Live Oak.
City and county officials gathered Tuesday morning at the Hilton Garden Inn to celebrate the announcement of a 289,000-square-foot IKEA store that is scheduled to open the summer of 2019.
City Councilman Aaron Dahl told Virtual Builders Exchange that Live Oak was in competition with several other communities along the Interstate 35 corridor between San Antonio and New Braunfels for IKEA’s preferred site. A year ago, City Council approved a tax incentive offer that ultimately landed the city the deal.
Over the past few months, Weitzman Group Cencor Realty Services has been working out the details of a preliminary site plan. Stantec produced the site plan presented to dignitaries and the media at the Tuesday press conference, said Cencor city partner Michael Schoenbrun.
While the illustrations only point to the 31-acre IKEA site, Schoenbrun said Cencor owns three 20-acre plots adjacent it.
Cencor will retain ownership of an area that will ultimately have 470,000 square feet of retail, in addition to the IKEA store. The IKEA store is intended to be the anchor for this larger shopping center that will also have a supermarket, as well as possibly furniture and lifestyle oriented retail.
Given the proximity of The Forum at Olympia Parkway and other retail development, Schoenbrun noted that the area development is already mature. However, he said there remains demand for services along the corridor sufficient to handle more commerce.
IKEA spokesman Joseph Roth said the company’s parcel is under contract, but will not be purchased until Cencor secures all the permits and government agreements and completes construction of the infrastructure. This will include construction of a new circular road that will extend the westernmost tail of Pat Booker Road (west of I-35) and circle around to Acateno (a residential neighborhood street) and McMorris Boulevard. Acateno would also be extended.
Cencor will do all the flat work (grading and utilities) for the IKEA site and turn it over to IKEA in late 2017, Schoenbrun said. IKEA takes responsibility for any vertical construction. The site will have over 1,000 parking spaces.
An IKEA statement said store plans reflect the same unique architectural design for which IKEA stores are known worldwide. IKEA also will evaluate potential on-site power generation to complement its current U.S. renewable energy presence at nearly 90 percent of its U.S. locations.
“Drawing from its Swedish heritage and respect of nature, IKEA strives to minimize its operations’ carbon emissions because reducing environmental impacts makes business sense,” the corporate statement said.
“IKEA evaluates locations for conservation opportunities, integrates innovative materials into product design, works to maintain sustainable resources, and flat-packs goods for efficient distribution. U.S. sustainable efforts include: recycling waste material; key measures in buildings with energy-efficient HVAC and lighting systems, recycled construction materials, warehouse skylights, and water-conserving restrooms; and operationally, eliminating plastic bags from the check-out process, and selling only LED lighting. IKEA U.S. has installed electric vehicle charging stations at 14 locations and solar arrays at 90 percent of its locations, and owns two U.S. wind farms.”
Construction of the IKEA Live Oak is anticipated to begin the spring of 2018. Schoenbrun said plans for the rest of the development–to be name Live Oak Town Center–are to time construction parallel to the IKEA project.
“We’ll plan our construction to start shortly after they start,” Schoenbrun said.
Schoenbrun and Roth both said their companies do not anticipate have design teams in place until early 2017.
Presently, IKEA has its nearest stores in Round Rock and Katy. IKEA estimates it already has 180,000 customers in the San Antonio area, and expects to draw customers to the store from all of South Texas and northern Mexico.
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adolfo@virtualbx.com
