IKEA's Charlotte Store

[Raintree21]

The final vote by the Charlotte City Council will be tonight on the rezoning. The only sticking point is the size of Ikea's highway sign.

[lukedog]

City Council is scheduled to vote on Monday to change the name of City Blvd to Ikea Blvd. This would only affect the section from I-85 to N Tryon St. If the City Council approves it, then it head to the NCDOT for approval. The city will have to pay for the costs of changing any highways signs with the new name. It is estimated that cost will be somewhere between $60K-$90K. Will be interesting to see if there is some deal worked out where IKEA will reimburse the city for that cost.

[monsoon]

I can understand the cost, but I can't understand why the City continues to bow down to demands like this from developers. It's a particulary bad development from almost any sustainabilty standpoint, the local residents don't want it, and its being put in an area that doesn't need any more big box retail.

On top of that, there is a new dance song out that has the lyrics "Oh please deliver me from swedish furniture". LOL It's obvious who they are referring to in that IKEA is no longer a trendy place.

[Neo]

$60,000-$90,000???? I believe you uptown but please tell me how in the world it could cost that much to change a few signs. I could see $5,000. There aren't that many signs on the interstate nor anywhere else that say City Blvd...so where does this cost come from?

Ever heard of the expensive hammers and toilet seats that the Department of Defense purchased a few years back?

[uptownliving]

The cost estimates for the signs I got from city council meetings. I don't have any breakdown on the costs such as how many signs and how much each one costs. At their meeting last week they voted to "indefinately defer" the decision to rename City Blvd to Ikea Blvd. What that deferal means for the 75ft sign I have no idea.

[New Name]

It's official now:

Most noteable part of the O article to me:

"The Charlotte Department of Transportation estimates that IKEA will add 8,600 car trips daily to roads in University City."

I feel so badly for everyone in UC who is already choked by the traffic. I moved out of there specifically because the traffic was making me crazy. That quote might as well read:

"The Charlotte Department of Transportation estimates that IKEA will increase 8,600 degrees of fire and brimstone to the flames of hell."

[uptownliving]

LOL, yeah I didn't enjoy living in the University area either... this IKEA will be a traffic nightmare when it first opens and then on most weekends after that...but during the week for rush hour it wont have much of an effect. The good thing about IKEA is that it will accelerate the construction of City Blvd to Tryon St...of course the bad thing is all the traffic it will add.

[monsoon]

Leave it to the City of Charlotte to do exactly the wrong thing again. Welcome to Charlotte, NC, the city of world class traffic problems, air pollution, and big box retail.

[Raintree21]

The good thing about IKEA is that it will accelerate the construction of City Blvd to Tryon St.

[AuLukey]

You're right, and it will also create a key intersection for the area. I remember reading somewhere on UP about a timetable of 2010. IKEA opens in 2009, so there would only be a year when the increase in traffic is not accommodated, and that would only effect 85 and IBM drive (in the opp. direction of traffic.)

In all honesty you all, after having now lived in the UC on and off for the last four years, if you know which roads to take, the traffic really isn't that bad. You just have to learn which roads to avoid at certain times. For example, around 5pm avoid 49 N and 85 N, but at the same time, 29 N is much faster as it only gets backed up at the MCCRd intersection for about a quarter mile which takes about two lights to clear. If you work on Harris, then traffic is only bad during the rush hours, that is your company's own dern fault for building on that road. Mallard Creek Ch Rd also gets backed up towards 29 around 5pm as well. But that is purely due to URP rush hour. In fact, if you work in URP by choice, then you can't really complain about traffic as that it one of the things you have to cope with for working for an idiotic business park company. Blame the rush hour traffic on 85 in that area on Cabarrus County.

I mean, I know it is pointless explaining how to get around the traffic when the city could improve the infrastructure so we don't have to, promote denser multi-use development, and actually enforce their zoning; but at this point, I don't think we can do anything to change the past, but rather look ahead at what can be done to fix this problem. IKEA had to go somewhere. At least it is right on the newly widened interstate that usually only gets backed up (up to that exit) in the worst of rush hours. Also, the traffic of 8600+ trips per day will most likely not be coming in all at rush hour, but rather on weekends and weeknights when the traffic there is not so bad. Thus, I don't see this development being a bad choice for the city, the location is detached enough from the rest of UC that it will not hurt it. In a way, I actually like that other businesses are being encouraged to relocate there. Thus, we can get rid of all the other big box sprawl in the heart of UC and move it off towards an underutilized area. That, to me, is a great thing.

[tiblerbrit]

At least it was built within the city limits. It could have very easily been built on the Concord Mills exit where we would have reaped no tax benefits and traffic backups on 85 would have been even worse.

[voyager12]

While the IKEA sign is very large and glaring I think it's hilarious that all of the sudden sign control is important in UC. Like most of Charlotte it's already a tacky mess out there and I don't think restricting IKEA will make the area suddenly "quaint" like Davidson

[AuLukey]

I agree, in all actuality, we live in a city, cities have signs. It's just part of the urban experience. Sure, we could all do without seeing a billboard every tenth of a mile, but in all reality, how many of us actually read those unless we are passengers. I for one avoid them as I prefer paying more attention to the road. Why should gas stations be allowed to have tall signs and other stores not? That doesn't seem fair, not that that matters anyway. It's one sign, and having a directional sign advertising that our city is actually "hip" enough to have an IKEA is, in a way, a very good way of advertising the city of Charlotte to some people. I know a few people who swear by IKEA and cannot believe we don't already have one. That doesn't exactly make the city look good, but it's just one less thing that this city doesn't have (right now) that other major metros do. Having a tall CBD, having highly selective retailers, and having a transportation system are very strong mark for urban size to some people out there. While most people on this forum look around those things, a lot of the general public sees those as indicators of a city's size. I know I used to when I was younger.

[rooster8]

Couldn't find this posted, but Crescent has a page on their site with a site plan and so forth:

IKEA at Crescent

[AuLukey]

I didn't know about University Point Blvd being built to connect N Tryon to the IKEA connector road. I'm happy that they aren't just building a single street straight across, this will help the infrastructure be able to handle the load.

[Andyc545]

I didn't know about University Point Blvd being built to connect N Tryon to the IKEA connector road. I'm happy that they aren't just building a single street straight across, this will help the infrastructure be able to handle the load.

[Skyline49er]

Yeah the roads are changing in this area. I had taken the City Blvd exit for the first time the other day and had no clue that that was the Ikea there. It seems there's a lot of activity around the site already.

Now it says Future N. Tryon. Since N. Tryon is already there, I'd assume it's getting repaved and expanded to 3 lanes, since they just finished that expansion at Harris Blvd / Burger King area there. Good to hear some news on this project.

[Raintree21]

Their website says: Anchor: Ikea - 345,000 Square Feet and Outparcels: Outparcels for sale. Anyone know who the other stores might be or if they've signed any other leases?

[Raintree21]

Crescent Resources has completed a conceptual master plan for the buildings and streets in Belgate, a lifestyle center of stores, restaurants and homes proposed off Interstate 85 at the City Boulevard exit. More details in the Observer article.

[Creasy336]

Not bad, I like that the site plans seems to be pedstrian friendly. Maybe this can start University City towards the right path.

[atlrvr]

Damn....that's suburban.....I like the road connectivity, but...damn....

[AuLukey]

Wow, this is so much more infrastructure that could have been hoped for in this chunk of land outside of another bridge over 85 (which isn't realistic for this property.) Even though I'm still not a huge fan of there being a Walmart here, it doesn't look to be part of a stripmall which I wasn't expecting at all.

[Spartan]

I like that they are preparing for future road connections to North Tryon. I also like the fact that there are ped connections. Its a shame that they didnt design the rest of the site so that people will actually walk between stores. Parking might be a little excessive. Over all, its not too bad, given the context of the site itself and that its ikea.

[Raintree21]

This place is going to be huge. They have a mile of frontage and in addition to IKEA, the developers plan 390,000 square feet of anchor stores, junior anchors and shops; 50,000 square feet of office-service space, 50,000 square feet of restaurants, 360 residential units and two hotels. Crescent's planning consultant Walter Fields of Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. said "There would be no big-box uses north of City Boulevard except for IKEA."

[AuLukey]

"There would be no big-box uses north of City Boulevard except for IKEA."