Monday, March 31, 2008

Spring has Sprung

From what I gather land has been cleared at the Charlotte Construction site for some time . . . but now Spring, that glorious season of rebirth and warmer weather has begun, and the real nitty gritty of IKEA comming to the Carolinas will kick into full gear.

I recently found the official announcement of the ground breaking & selection of which construction firm will actually be building my Southern Sweedish Salvation . . .


April 9th is JUST around the corner!!! Too bad I don't know if I can get there for the ceremony or not . . . it's on a Wednesday & I don't work on Wednesdays but money is tight right now . . . I will elaborate further down.

Swedish retailer Ikea will break ground for its first store in Charlotte on
April 9.
The 356,000-square-foot store will be built on 25 acres in the
northeast quadrant of the Interstate 85 interchange at City Boulevard, in
the
University City area. It will employ approximately 400 workers and have
1,600
parking spaces.
The store, slated to open next spring, will be
Ikea's first
in North Carolina and its 36th in the United States.
In
addition to
marketing nearly 10,000 exclusively designed items, the store
will feature three
model-home interiors, 50 room settings, a supervised
children's play area and a
300-seat restaurant serving Swedish specialties.
Ikea has hired Charlotte's Bovis
Lend Lease Inc.
as the construction-management firm for the structure
and
site work.
Crescent
Resources
of Charlotte is the master land developer for the project.

This is WAY beyond EXCITING!



I was up north for spring break . . . & we DID actually get part of our tax refund back but instead of going IKEA crazy as I originally planned I went IkeaCrazy of another type . . .


Meet Ikea Fonzarelli
a Pomeranian puppy we just adopted 3 weeks ago
he cost me my IKEA fund for the spring & ladies can't resist him . . . hence his naming.
. . . we just call him Ike for short
I did manage to stop by the College Park & Woodbridge stores over Spring break last week & scored a HELLA deal on gift wrap . . . 6 roll packs of christmas gift wrap for TEN CENTS . . . I bought 3 packs . . . I won't need to buy gift wrap for a while.
I also picked up some coasters, a set of measuring cups and storage boxes from the As-Is Department.
My 11 year old is also showing her IKEA addiction . . . she bought a hamper for herself & her little sister, a block candle with tray and a dustpan. . . the apple don't fall far from the tree you know. I have a feeling that I will have to pull her out of school for the grand opening . . . at least I'll have a camping buddy!

Now I need to come up with gas money to get to Charlotte next week.