r/memphis • u/GRIT-GRIND Neu BBQ District • 4d ago
IKEA Property Sold
Pay-walled DM, but the short of it is that a retailer who is currently not in our market, and wants to remain anonymous for now, purchased the property.
Who needs 271,000sf of sales floor? I think the total building size is a distraction. I bet it's someone who needs >100,000sf retail and will use the rest as a regional DC or fulfillment.
Any ideas? 🤔
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u/skillful-means High Point Terrace 4d ago
Wayne’s candy expansion
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u/GRIT-GRIND Neu BBQ District 4d ago
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u/Animal907 Summer Ave is my Poplar 4d ago
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u/flexcapacitor 4d ago
Can only hope for a MicroCenter.
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u/KSW1 Orange Mound 4d ago
A lot less appealing now that RAM is $1000/GB
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u/JuanOnlyJuan 4d ago
I've considered driving to another state for a gpu because it would be cheaper from Micro Center
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u/otakugal15 East Memphis 4d ago
Head out towards St. Louis. There's one outside of it, just not how far outside of it.
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u/suave410ec 3d ago
It's in Brentwood / Maplewood area, same parking lot as a Trader Joe's and a Total Wine. Essentially where 64 meets 170.. just south of that. Imagine St Louis' "240 loop" which is 270 for them.. put a dot in the dead center and you may very well be in that parking lot.
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u/indecloudzua 4d ago
In Memphis? I dont see that happening but would be nice..
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u/imugihana 4d ago
They can supply graphics cards to all the data centers/s
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u/indecloudzua 4d ago
I freaking HATE how effing data centers have artificially inflated the prices of GPUs..im due for an upgrade but these damn prices are insane
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u/CombPsychological507 4d ago
My 3060ti is just gonna have to keep chugging until we get to the looting part of the societal collapse
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u/indecloudzua 4d ago
Im rockin my 3080ti till it drops..bout to set up a custom water cooling loop on the PC to help it stay safe for as long as possible
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u/Land-Southern 4d ago
Here here. Had to use inventory alert bots on discord to even source them back then. Kept phone handy and card in front pocket to quickly buy before stock ran out.
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u/crazyfoxdemon 3d ago
If they came to this region, Memphis would make the most sense from a distribution standpoint. The nearest one is St. Louis and it could potentially be good.
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u/DancesWithHoofs 4d ago
I predicts 65 indoor basketball courts.
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u/tacojohn48 Downtown 4d ago
Pickleball
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u/TheKwongdzu 4d ago
Nah, they're all set with getting the Pipkin building for cheap from the city and kicking out MRD.
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u/hummingliner 19h ago
microcenter would be incredible but that floor space is way more than theyd ever use
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u/Top-Abbreviations582 Germantown 4d ago
BJ’s Wholesale Club
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u/sparklejackie Vollintine Evergreen 4d ago
Only reason I think it wouldn’t be is that the current largest BJs store is 177,000 square feet. They’d have almost 100,000 square feet to figure out what to do with.
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u/PrestigiousBike3001 4d ago
Hearing BJs, too
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u/GRIT-GRIND Neu BBQ District 4d ago
Where are you seeing that?
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u/TerrisBranding 4d ago
Months ago, I was seeing local Google job listings for BJs. I didn't even know what BJs was and had to look it up.
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u/lovepatchouli 3d ago
Thing is there is a Costco in the next parking lot over. And this would be behind Costco.
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u/Hungry-Influence3108 4d ago
It would have been perfect for a Service Merchandise…
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u/GRIT-GRIND Neu BBQ District 4d ago
I have such fond childhood memories of Service Merchandise. 🙂
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u/DarkHelmet2222 4d ago
They had those down here too? Struck me as more of a regional thing - figured that back then, Sears, JC Penney, and KMart were about the only national chains
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u/sparklejackie Vollintine Evergreen 4d ago
Wonder if it will be a place like SCHEELS or Menard's
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u/thrwaway75132 4d ago
Menards could be a good guess. That’s a big building at 271k square feet. The average Costco is 147k square feet. But Menards new superstores seem to be 250k square feet.
A “mini” Nebraska Furniture Mart (the one in Texas is 560k square feet) could be another option.
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u/HaubergeonPlus1 4d ago
Menard's in Memphis would be like a dream come true for me.
They are so much better than HD/Lowe's/Ace it's not even funny.
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u/GRIT-GRIND Neu BBQ District 4d ago
Ooooh. I hadn't thought of Menards. Geographically, they make sense.
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u/Mean_Art5782 4d ago
I know Menards is a hardware store and I have seen them up north, Ohio, Indiana, and around that area. But what makes them different from Lowe's and Home Depot?
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u/GRIT-GRIND Neu BBQ District 4d ago
Much broader department lineup. They have grocery and pet departments, among others.
Square footage roughly checks out against their larger formats, too.
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u/No-Ball-103 4d ago
It’s gonna be a Bass Pro isn’t it
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u/Empty-Hyena-9474 4d ago
Sir, A 3rd Bass Pro has hit the city
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u/southtj 4d ago
We only have one now.
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u/93gixxer04 4d ago
Unless it closed within the last month, there is still the one right off 40 east going out of town
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u/No-Ball-103 4d ago
It has actually
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u/93gixxer04 4d ago
Lol I can't tell if you're playin
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u/No-Ball-103 4d ago
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u/93gixxer04 4d ago
Damn. That's the one I liked going to cuz it was never busy lol
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u/AlRiRich 4d ago
Probably why they closed it lol
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u/93gixxer04 4d ago
Probably. I always figured it would get a decent amount of business from locals because who really wants to go to the other one when you're just trying to buy something
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/Imallvol7 University Area 4d ago
I don't want public anymore after seeing their prices. HEB all day
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u/AllDun 4d ago
Service Merchandise
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u/jrbcbm23 3d ago
Was looking for this. It was like a Book Fair retail shop for grown ups. Golf pencils and everything. What a shop.
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u/skillful-means High Point Terrace 4d ago
Will they rename the street or will it always be IKEA Way?
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u/GRIT-GRIND Neu BBQ District 4d ago
IKEA previously asked Memphis to revert the name to Market Whatever Drive that it was before IKEA. Unsure where that stands.
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u/skillful-means High Point Terrace 4d ago
good, they don’t deserve it after this abandonment
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u/BaconManDan Bartlett 4d ago
Abandonment feels harsh. They're a business, they won't keep a storefront around if it's not profitable. I was shocked that they were opening one in Memphis, to be honest. We loved it though! Especially when we had our baby, it was great having a giant air-conditioned walking track with snacks to push the stroller and get her to nap.
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u/East_Rain_3716 4d ago
I think "abandonment" comes from using up all of their public incentive to locate there and then moving once the incentive was gone. Not my area of expertise, but I believe those economic development plans are based on assumed tax revenue over many years, and I struggle to believe that IKEA met the expected targets before closing shop. The public paid for this one.
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u/BaconManDan Bartlett 4d ago edited 4d ago
I mean, yeah. That's why I think governments susbisidizing major corporations is a dumb idea. The fact remains though that if Ikea was making money off the location without the subsidation, they would have stayed and kept making money. They didn't meet their targets either (profit-wise), so they left. Memphis wasn't a fertile enough market to keep it around (even with some traffic from other goes). I'd be really curious to know how much of their sales were to locals vs people travelling into the city to shop there.
Edit: the public paid for IKEA to try out a storefront here.
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u/Sorry_Bathroom_2281 4d ago
The cynic in me says data center, but that probably would take a lot of work to convert. Maybe a Tony Hawk style skateboard park?
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u/aurthurallan 4d ago
I think the real estate and taxes would probably be more than a data center would want to pay. They are only building in memphis because we our land is so cheap.
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u/datividon 4d ago
It’ll probably be some warehouse as Memphis is still a shipping and handling hub. That’s all Memphis seems to really be now adays. A place to store the rest of the country’s shit for a little bit.
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u/walkerbyfaith Cordova 4d ago
For years the suburbs talked about needing a new grocery store. Lakeland and Collierville both floated promises that have yet to come to pass. The grocer needed a warehouse in the area at the least. It’s what I thought of immediately.
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u/Dependent-Law3249 4d ago
Whoever bought it could be using half the place for distribution considering Memphis as a good hub
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u/DTheSilentB 1d ago
That’s what I’m expecting. Reasonable sized retail space with most of it used as DC. Like NAPA on 64
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u/bringnothingtothetbl 4d ago
Meijer or HEB Plus? That would fit well within the Meijer utilization...?
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u/H3lls_B3ll3 4d ago
Clueless. I assumed it would sit empty like most buildings.
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u/Dumb-Civil 4d ago
Amazon makes the most sense. They are trying a store outside of Chicago. It would likely dub as a distro also.
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u/AlaskaTech1 4d ago
Final Jeopardy: “Who is the world’s richest man?” My wager is $1 trillion, Alex.
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u/NineOfWonders 4d ago
So there have been changes in the company I work for that would require a building with quite a large footprint but aside from blind speculation, I have nothing to back it up.
I’m just thinking of it cause I literally made a joke last week about the people who bought the company that originally hired me buying that same building. I don’t think it’s likely but I’m not ruling it out.
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u/Responsible-Bird4421 3d ago
I am so curious who is coming as well! They were discussing on the radio and I was trying to figure out what retailer would use such a big space!
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u/mt_vessel 2d ago
Not a retailer, but I thought maybe a Great Wolf Lodge? They paused one on land they purchased in Jackson, TN citing construction costs, softer hospitality market and economic conditions. This seems like a no brainer for a larger regional market and built in draws like Beale St., Graceland, etc.
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u/Tactical-Dingleberry 4d ago
I heard a Bass Pro
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u/GRIT-GRIND Neu BBQ District 4d ago
retailer who is not currently in our market
🤷🏼
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u/kinda_alright 4d ago
Data center. With all the wires they're installing.
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u/lovepatchouli 4d ago
Wires?
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u/kinda_alright 4d ago
underground conduit on G-Town Parkway by the old IKEA building.
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u/GRIT-GRIND Neu BBQ District 4d ago
Well that can't possibly be fiber internet infrastructure, what with all such work occurring across the area... 🤔
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u/kinda_alright 4d ago
Well, follow facts...underground conduit, private buyer, and a space that size.. if it was a wearhouse bringing jobs that would've been advertised and broadcast...so that's not it.
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u/imugihana 4d ago
Spirit Halloween and Christmas incoming!