In some excellent news for all those living east of the Caldecott Tunnel, the East Bay will be getting a second IKEA location, in Dublin, which may have the side effect of also relieving weekend congestion at the over-taxed Emeryville store. Sadly, though, all those in need of flimsily constructed chests of drawers and inexpensive, single-use bookshelves will have to wait until 2018 to see that happen.
The Swedish furniture maker announced the plan via a press release, and noted this will be their ninth California location, and their third in the Bay Area the others being in East Palo Alto and Emeryville. They're submitting plans to the City of Dublin to build a 339,000-square-foot on a 21-acre parcel next to I-580 at Hacienda Drive.
As the Business Times notes, they want to purchase a total of 27 acres with plans to develop the other six acres with 52,000 square feet of adjacent retail, a restaurant, and possibly a boutique hotel, perhaps with a developer partner.
Dublin is a relatively small and affluent city with a population of approximately 52,000, tons of freeway-adjacent retail, and a median household income of $112,679. It ranks, though, as the third fastest growing city in the state.
The Emeryville store, however, has spent two decades serving the cheap furniture needs not only of San Francisco and its population of 800,000+, but also the entirety of the very populous East Bay, and Marin County as well. That is why a Saturday there has become like a meatball-scented circle of hell filled with screaming children, exhausted, zombified adults nearly passed out on every couch and Poang chair, and customer-service desk employees who are, literally, a hair's breath away from conceiving a terror plot.*
For their sake, and for all of us who can't afford to shop at Room & Board, the Dublin store is going to take a big load off. It's scheduled to potentially begin construction next spring, with an opening set for Summer 2018.
* Just kidding, IKEA! Your customer service people are literally doing no such thing! But a lot of them at that store do look like their patience is worn thinner than a few of those Bay Bridge rods, if you know what I'm saying.
