LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), March 11 (SeeNews) - Swedish home furnishing retailer IKEA has applied for a building permit for a store in the BTC shopping district in Slovenia's capital Ljubljana, according to Slovenian media reports.

"We have never been so close to beginning to build our store, and today's application is an important step forward," daily Dnevnik quoted on Friday the regional property and expansion manager of the Swedish company for Southeast Europe, Vladislav Lalic, as saying.

According to the company's estimates, construction works will take one year to complete, as preparatory works can begin in the summer.

At the end of February, the Ljubljana City Council cancelled a requirement that Ikea should complete the construction of a roundabout at the southern access to BTC to get a building permit for the store, the daily added.

In 2017, IKEA said it will invest some 90 million euro ($101.2 million) in the planned store.

($ = 0.889041 euro)