One of the most eagerly-awaited stores in the kingdom, IKEA, famous for its ready to-assemble furniture, is on track with its construction plans, a senior official said.
Since a groundbreaking ceremony last October, as reported in GulfWeekly, Bahrain based Kooheji Contractors have been in charge of steering the building project forward.
Fruto Hernandez, IKEA Saudi Arabia expansion manager, said: “The enabling and foundation works of IKEA Bahrain are complete and the main work has started. Right now we are continuing with the slab works, water-proofing, underground piping and precast order.”
Construction should be complete by early next summer and the store, located in Salmabad, will be open later in 2018.
IKEA Bahrain is being opened by the Al Sulaiman Group, IKEA Saudi Arabia. The Bahrain store will be the biggest in the region and include an 800-seat restaurant. It will house a 6,200sqm showroom, a 6,000sqm market hall for accessories, a 5,000sqm self-serve section and a full service area measuring 4,000sqm.
The sit-down bistro and Swedish food market, for grab-and-go snacks and takehome meals, will take up about 500sqm of the total area. The store will also feature a 220sqm play facility, called Smaland, named after the small town in Sweden where IKEA started, allowing children to be taken care of by IKEA staff, free of charge. There will also be 1,100 parking spaces spread over two levels.
