IKEA's new Las Vegas-area store opened on Wednesday.

Swedish home furnishings retail giant IKEA opened the doors of its new Las Vegas store on Wednesday morning. The 351,000 square-foot IKEA Las Vegas is located on 26 acres along the northern side of the 215 Beltway at South Durango Drive, near Sunset Road in Clark County.

It is the company’s first store and restaurant destination in Nevada, 42nd in the United States, and 385th worldwide. The store employs approximately 300 coworkers and features 10,000 exclusively-designed items, a 450-seat IKEA Restaurant, 43 inspirational room settings, three model home interiors, a supervised children’s play area and approximately 1,300 parking spaces.

Reflecting the company’s renewable energy presence at 90% of its U.S. locations, IKEA installed Nevada’s largest single-use retail rooftop solar array atop the IKEA Las Vegas. The store also is the second U.S. IKEA store to open with only LED lighting for sale, and for use inside and outside the building.

“The enthusiasm of coworkers about this big day and the warm reception from the community are translating into excitement and a great shopping event for our customers,” said Amy Jensen, store manager.

Before the doors opened, Jensen welcomed the community with a traditional Swedish log-sawing ceremony. In addition to brief remarks by Clark County Commissioner Susan Brager, Deputy Chief of Mission for the Swedish Embassy Göran Lithell, and IKEA U.S. president Lars Petersson, Jensen was joined by State Senator Becky Harris who raised the U.S. flag, Honorary Swedish Consul for Las Vegas Lena Walther who raised the Swedish flag, and Assemblyman David Gardner who raised the Nevada flag. Individual store coworkers sang the respective American and Swedish national anthems and “America the Beautiful,” and a sign language interpreter accompanied opening remarks.

(Source: Furniture Today)