Blue and yellow shovels will be present June 24 when Ikea breaks ground on its St. Louis store at Forest Park and Vandeventer avenues.

Speeches will be delivered and ceremonial shovelfuls of dirt will be tossed to mark the event. Joe Roth, an Ikea spokesman, says the shovels will be Ikea blue and yellow.

The Swedish retailer has yet to specify the project's cost but says it will exceed $100 million. Roth says the St. Louis store is the only U.S. outlet Ikea will open next year.

The company said yesterday it had acquired the 21-acre site.

Contractor S.M. Wilson & Co. is preparing to get underway with construction. Site work has begun. Next up is some additional building demolition, closure of part of Duncan Avenue and work to relocate a big sewer that runs beneath the site.

Roth says the project remains on schedule for a store opening next summer. Construction will proceed in phases, said Roth, adding that Laclede Gas will continue to use buildings on part of the store site for about nine more months.

Ikea bought the site from Cortex, the technology district that is working to redevelop its Central West End neighborhood as a 24-7 area of science labs, offices, apartments and stores.

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