Swedish home furnishing company Ikea has set its sights on densely populated Cheras and Ampang in Kuala Lumpur for a new store. IKEA already runs an outlet in Mutiara Damansara, Selangor, and has confirmed the opening of a second in Johor.
General manager Joseph Lau told the malaysian newspaper Business Times that it was scouting for suitable land that will offer ample parking space.
“We need a second store in the Klang Valley. We are looking at the Cheras and Ampang corridor,” Lau said.
The planned store will be located along the highway and have the size of eight and a half football fields.
“Our Ikea now is on 5.3ha, and that is too small. We will need a larger piece of land for our next store. The minimum we want is 6ha. Our bottleneck now is the carpark. There is insufficient parking. The bigger warehouse the better. We do this everywhere in the world” he ads.
According to the Business Times, a local property consultant has said, that land in Cheras and Ampang could cost about RM150 per square foot if it is located next to the main road. This woll mean that IKEA may spend some RM100 million for a 6ha site.
IKEA first opened at the 1Utama shopping mall, but moved to its own site in Mutiara Damansara in 2003.
