Toronto Aura at College Park | 271.87m | 78s | Canderel | Graziani + Corazza

I am surprised it opens in 1 week? I walked by a few days ago and could see construction materials / ladders strewn inside.
 
Today (a week before opening). There were lots of people inside IKEA, presumably staff on orientation/ training program. Here’s a couple of shots of the second floor by the escalators. Checkouts are to the right of the exit (entrance too? Or maybe entrance from first floor only?)

E526096C-36B5-49FD-B196-A6EE2F2DE4BD.jpeg


496CCD46-E71A-4927-AD62-578451A10156.jpeg
 
I did venture to the basement yesterday. Surprisingly, it's NOT deader than it was before the pandemic (read: it's still a ghost town). 5 or 6 stalls were actually operating at the food court, which is the most I've seen since the basement opened some 7 years ago. No one was actually buying/ consuming the F&B though, so we'll see how long these stalls will remain open. IKEA could either help to attract foot traffic or draw even more people away from the basement ... who can resist those Swedish meatballs? :)
 
It's much larger than I thought it would be:

The Bed, Bath & Beyond on the second floor was pretty big, and IKEA will take up 2 floors (although the first floor will be smaller than the second). As a comparison, Eataly in Manulife Centre is about 50k sq ft, IKEA is about 66K sq ft.
 
It's much larger than I thought it would be:


This is the interesting bit for me, isn’t out of the realm of possibility to expand.
Interestingly, IKEA’s real estate arm Ingka owns much of the podium at Aura at College Park now, including the space above the store occupied by a Marshalls store as well as main floor space occupied by two financial institutions. Those tenants will remain according to an executive with Ingka.
 
Checked out the new IKEA store. No line to get in surprisingly, although it was late (almost 8 pm). I’d thought the store would have a similar layout as a full-sized IKEA (marketplace downstairs, showroom upstairs), but there’s a mix of both (showrooms and stuffs you can grab and buy) on both floors. You order food from the Swedish deli downstairs, and there’s a small seating area on the mezzanine between the 2 floors.

76C412E8-273D-4F3F-BBF0-352EAECE897D.jpeg


D7E8C236-7E9B-4089-AC84-A4A76F0C2391.jpeg


62CAC05A-A54E-4A70-8755-816919861F3E.jpeg


D9C17ED3-9E12-487D-8EAB-F03AECD1BA56.jpeg


1837511D-B76C-4D22-A5BA-91AF252EA4BF.jpeg


5C389772-0CF0-4F73-9E81-C13B51DCA695.jpeg
 

Back
Top