IKEA proposes major Richmond store expansion, growing by 50% in size

Artistic rendering of the IKEA Richmond store expansion at 3320 Jacombs Road. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive photo)

IKEA is considering growing its retail operations in Metro Vancouver by significantly expanding its Richmond store.

The company recently submitted a development permit application to the municipal government to seamless perform a major building expansion of the existing building at 3320 Jacombs Road.

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This would be a southward expansion by developing the large vacant grass field — not a northward expansion replacing the store’s surface parking. The undeveloped site was reserved for a future expansion as part of the Richmond store’s complete redevelopment more than a decade ago.

A spokesperson for the City of Richmond told Daily Hive Urbanized the proposed expansion focuses on expanding the capacity for e-commerce, parcel, home delivery, and additional “click and collect” services.

The expansion would be a two-storey wing with a floor area of 162,400 sq ft. This would grow the building to a total floor area of more than 507,000 sq ft — and for comparison’s sake, it would be even larger than the total functional meeting space within the Vancouver Convention Centre. The Richmond store’s existing floor area of 345,000 sq ft is already slightly larger than the Coquitlam store.

Existing condition of IKEA Richmond:

Aerial of the existing condition of the IKEA Richmond store at 3320 Jacombs Road. (Google Earth)

Future condition of IKEA Richmond after expansion:

Artistic rendering of the IKEA Richmond store expansion at 3320 Jacombs Road. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive photo)

“At IKEA, we are accelerating our business transformation to become more accessible, affordable, and sustainable,” IKEA Canada told Daily Hive Urbanized in a statement.

“We want to ensure that we meet our customers with a seamless omnichannel shopping experience that is delivered with convenience and speed. As such, we can confirm that IKEA is exploring the opportunity to expand the IKEA Richmond warehouse to strengthen its store fulfilment capabilities. We are in the early stages of this process and will share more information if we decide to move forward with this expansion.”

Prior to the completion of the existing 2012-built store building, IKEA’s main Richmond store building was located at the southeast corner of the intersection of Bridgeport Road and Sweden Way — where the Popeye’s Chicken restaurant is currently located. The 2012-built store building replaced business parks and industrial buildings to the southeast, including a secondary IKEA building for furniture pick-up — just across from IKEA’s main parking lot.

Vacant site for the expansion of the IKEA Richmond store building at 3320 Jacombs Road. Captured on February 26, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

ABBARCH Architecture, which has offices in Vancouver and Toronto, designed the 2012-built store and the newly proposed expansion. To date, the architectural firm has designed five stores for IKEA Canada, including the locations in Coquitlam, Edmonton, Calgary, and Winnipeg.

The 2012-built store features green design features such as a geo-exchange heating and cooling, a rooftop garden for staff to grow vegetables, and a mix of solar power, efficient lighting, occupancy sensors, skylights, and other energy efficiency systems.

Its parking facilities hold a capacity for 1,400 vehicles. Later this decade, public transit reaching the store will greatly improve when TransLink launches a RapidBus or Bus Rapid Transit service between SkyTrain Richmond-Brighouse Station and SkyTrain Metrotown Station via Bridgeport Road and Knight Street Bridge. A stop at Sweden Way would directly serve the IKEA, which is the area’s largest destination and employer.

Main entrance of the IKEA Richmond store from the surface parking lot at 3320 Jacombs Road. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

In 2018, IKEA also opened a 330,000 distribution centre at 7031 York Road, in an industrial park near the Fraser River in southeast Richmond.

IKEA has been expanding both its retail store and logistics operations in recent years, including opening new smaller urban stores, including the opening of the Yonge Street store in downtown Toronto in 2022. Last November, the company announced plans to open an 80,000 sq ft urban store within Scarborough Town Centre mall.

IKEA Canada’s 2022 summary report shows national store visits have increased by 123% to 26 million, while sales have increased by 1.3% to $2.6 billion in the fiscal year ending August 2022. Nearly 1.8 million orders were delivered, almost 880,000 online and collect orders were processed, and food sales at the retail stores increased by 160%.

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