The mayor of Garfield Heights said IKEA is not opening a store in the city and added that the way the city was informed about this development was “very unprofessional.”
Mayor Vic Collova said that the city has been in negotiations with IKEA, along with the developer of Bridgeview Crossing, to bring an IKEA store to the center in Garfield Heights.
“We have invested a lot of time, the developer has invested a lot of money to get IKEA here," Mayor Collova said. "We were given the impression they were ready to come here, then we found out a week ago, Thursday, that they were not coming in.”
IKEA didn’t reach out to the city, but instead contacted the developer to pass the news on to them, Mayor Collova said. The developer brought the city in on a conference call.
“What they did, it was very unprofessional, no thought given to the city,” Mayor Collova said.
Mayor Collova said that the company had concerns about wetlands, but said there are no wetlands on the property where the store was to be opened. He said another factor was the increase in online purchasing, which is causing the company to reconsider all their planned stores.
“They have been a difficult company to deal with...we rolled out the red carpet for them,” Mayor Collova said.
He said the city will be fine and hopes a bigger, better opportunity will come from this.
