OAK CREEK, WI — The Oak Creek IKEA announced Tuesday that it's grand opening date for their new 293,000 square-foot store will be opening a month earlier than expected, and will take place this spring instead of summer.

IKEA officials said the store will officially open for business at 9 a.m. May 16, 2018. It will be the first IKEA in Wisconsin and its 48th in the U.S. People can begin lining up at the store at 5 a.m. on May 16. IKEA officials said grand opening plans and promotions would be available soon at IKEA-USA.com/OakCreek.

Former Oak Creek Mayor Steve Scaffidi said according to a 2012 survey of Oak Creek residents, when asked what residents would like to see, they reported wanting two things: more restaurants, and IKEA. The then-mayor went on to say that Northwestern Mutual approached him about the idea of bringing IKEA to Oak Creek - an idea he welcomed. "I think this is going to be a tremendous addition to the city," he said.

Here are a few details about the store: store will be 1 story tall

will be approximately 295,000 square feet.

992 parking spots

50 showrooms

3 model homes

self-service area

300-seat cafeteria

supervised children play area

preferred parking for families

will employ about 250 people

will generate 500 construction jobs. As the Oak Creek Ikea prepares for its 2018 launch, the company is actively looking for employees to fill out its team. Through Patch.com's jobs listing partner, Ziprecruiter, here are the jobs that are currently open at Ikea in the Milwaukee area:

According to Oak Creek plan commission documents, due to the presence of wetlands on the property, the building and parking were shifted west, with all required setbacks are met in the revised plans.

According to documents, while a slight reduction from 995 parking stalls to 992 is shown in the new plans, this exceeds the minimum number of stalls required by code. A small area for parking was shifted from the southwest corner of the building to the east, and the loading dock on the southeast corner of the building was rotated 180 degrees to face the rear of the building (rather than the parking lot).



Documents also state that two small stormwater ponds were added to the northeast and southeast corners of the property to supplement the reconfigured larger stormwater pond south of the parking lot. Documents also indicated that signage was also slightly revised and will need further revisions to correct the square footage for the IKEA wall sign identified as on the elevations.