Credit: Wikipedia
Garfield Heights Mayor Vic Collova gracefully told Scene that he and residents of his small Cleveland suburb were “highly disappointed” that the retail furniture giant IKEA had declined to pursue a location there after nearly two years of planning.

“We pulled out the red carpet for them and everything,” Collova said in a phone interview. “We said whatever they wanted in terms of tax abatement — everything legal — they could have. The developer put a ton of money into it and we were really banking on it.”

Collova said he hated to be so blunt, but tax dollars pay for city services and that the IKEA location would’ve provided a good deal of tax revenue for Garfield Heights.

“It would’ve been an economic catalyst for the whole area,” he said.

Crain’s Cleveland Business broke the story and reported that IKEA informed the city of its decision via conference call last week.

“It was very unprofessional the way they did it, in my view,” Collova said. “It was certainly a shock. They weren’t even planning on telling Garfield Heights, but the developer said, I’m not telling them, and made [IKEA] get on the phone with us.”

Collova acknowledged that there may have been sound business reasons for IKEA’s decision — the company said the 70-acre site off of 1-480 at Transportaion Boulevard had a “wetlands issue” — but that he would have expected something resembling an apology after all the time and effort expended on the site.

Collova said that the developer, California-based Craig Realty, is handling the site, and that he’s confident a new tenant or tenants will be found soon. A shopping center was planned for the site in 2008, but crumbled when potential retailers backed out because of the recession.

“Out of this disappointment,” Collova said, “will come a new opportunity.”  

This article appears in Sep 12-18, 2018.

Sam Allard is a former senior writer at Scene.

9 replies on “That Garfield Heights IKEA Ain’t Happening”

  2. It’s all cardboard and plastic…not even fit for dorm life. I can’t figure out what demographic buys their dreck. TheirSwedish lingonberries make for excellent eating, but they’re not worth a trip to Pissburgh,
    Unless the Pirates are in town. PNC Park is a jewel.

  3. Good on them. GH needs to stop trying to get shopping centers built on that land. I walked through CityView just today and with the Earth trying to swallow the parking lot and making hills and cliffs where none were intended you can see why it’s a bad idea.

    Besides, I thought IKEA was looking at Tiedeman behind Plain Dealer, no?

  5. Why the hell not? How is Pissburgh any different or better or “cooler” than Cleveland?
    Been to Pissburgh many times…it’s no more or less “Ikea-worthy” than Cleveland is.
    They do have a much smaller black population…does THAT have anything to do with it?
    The cities aren’t all that different, except one has more hills and rivers, and the other is on a big lake.
    Otherwise, they’re like twin beds…one newly made and flat, the other recently slept-in and rumpled up.
    More similarities than differences…like twin brothers…hence the rivalry and the mutual dislike.

  6. Just goes to show you a Landfill is, and always will be, a Landfill.

    When Walmart exited a thriving store @ City View within days of the methane issues literally bubbling up, its pretty dumb to expect another major retailer to take on the disaster risk this location presents.

    I can’t believe that Stein Mart and other tenants of that building haven’t fled the gas field as well.

  7. Cleveland is full of leftist troublemakers. I guess they didnt learn from the kucinich mayoral term. No one wants to open a business when the media and the leftist are in perpetual attack mode. Too many ignorant people think they know how to get things done, like Sam A.

    Keep working hard to drive business, tourists and decent people away from Cleveland. Youve done well turning the city, and soon the county into our own Democratic Party version on Venezuela. Good work.

  8. Garfield Heights. Hmmm. Think what a treasure trove for Clevelands diverse community of shoplifters, thugs and carjackers. Nope. I dont think anyones opening a business there until the scum has been scraped away.

  9. Kucinich was forty years ago, asswipe. The GOP delegates to the RNC raved about how great the CLE is. And twenty MILLION tourists a year are visiting Cleveland. Are your eyes, brown, lala? They must be, because you’re full of crap up to your eyeballs. Pull your head out of your posterior orifice and wake up.

    Yes, sirree bob…IKEA in Pissburgh was a HUGE disappointment…cardboard and plastic crap that even a college kid wouldn’t touch. ESPECIALLY a college kid…they have to have expensive shit for their single rooms now…even for dorm life,,,the elitist little entitled snobs.

    The demographic that buys their dreck is probably the Eastern European refugees who just got off the boat. TheSwedish lingonberries were definitely the only things that made a visit to IKEA worthwhile.

    IKEA: It’s Krap Everybody Abhors…

    And you damn betcha Pissburgh is worth the drive when the Pirates are in town. PNC Park is not only a jewel, it’s far superior to The Jake, and the best, by a wide margin, of the “new” parks. PNC is the second-best ballpark in MLB. Only Wrigley Field tops it. Good luck finding a ticket for the Cubs, though. But tickets to PNC are fairly inexpensive and usually available, and their food is fantastic. GOYA (get off your ass) and GO!

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