MIAMI—Contractors have been hired and a building permit is pending for IKEA's Miami-Dade store in Sweetwater, FL. That means developers will break ground on the new IKEA within two months and a new home furnishings retailer will come online by Summer 2014.

Balfour Beatty Construction won the general contractor deal. More than 500 jobs that are expected to be created during the construction phase. When the new store opens it will employ about 350 workers.

“This store will provide a more conveniently located IKEA shopping experience for current and potential Miami-Dade customers, and will help strengthen the IKEA presence in Florida established by stores already in Sunrise, Orlando and Tampa,” says Mike Ward, IKEA US president.  

IKEA Miami will feature nearly 10,000 items, 50 room-settings, three model home interiors, a supervised children's play area, and a 500-seat restaurant. Other family-friendly features include a Children's IKEA area in the showroom, baby care rooms, preferred parking, and play areas throughout the store.  

IKEA also tapped Kimley-Horn and Associates for civil engineering; ATC Associates for geotechnical services; GFA International, Inc. for testing and inspection services, Holland & Knight for local land use counsel; The Goldstein Environmental Law Firm for brownfield expertise; real estate brokerage The Shopping Center Group for site selection support; and Procacci Development Corporation for selling the land. Atlanta-based GreenbergFarrow is the project architect.

The 417,000 square-foot future IKEA Miami, and 1,500 parking spaces, will be built on 14.6 acres adjacent to the Dolphin Mall, and located west of Miami International Airport at the intersection of the Dolphin Expressway (SR 836) and Florida's Turnpike. IKEA also will evaluate solar generation potential for this store to complement the presence of renewable energy generation at nearly 90% of its current U.S. locations.