Despite lingering court actions designed to halt the Swedish giant retailer, the Ikea Group in Portugal finally has started work on its vast commercial project between Loulé and Faro.
The diggers started today, August 3rd, with an unspecific completion date for the Ikea store sometime in 2016 with the surrounding shopping centre due to be completed a year later.
Ikea seems keen to engage the press it its plans and progress with today’s announcement and a meeting scheduled for September 2nd at which the Swedes and Loulé council will give a presentation to hacks about the whole Ikea Loulé project.
The project now has a name, albeit a forgettable one, as the Complexo Comercial do Algarve, (Algarve Shopping Complex) starts to be built.
Many locals are keen to have an Ikea store in the Algarve, the nearest for most being near Seville over the border, but may be shocked at the extent of the overall project size with the inclusion of an 1.7 hectare Outlet Village to be managed by an Austrian company ‘ROS Retail Outlet Shopping,’ as well as a two floor, 4 hectare shopping centre, a recreation zone and a free car park with capacity for 3,700 vehicles.
