FORT COLLINS, Colo. — When IKEA announced it would be opening a small-format store in Fort Collins later this year, the news came as a surprise — albeit a welcomed one — to the city, according to Fort Collins Economic Health Director SeonAh Kendall.
City staff learned of the move like the rest of us when the Swedish furniture giant announced in a Feb. 17 news release that Fort Collins was among a new batch of four U.S. cities set to get an IKEA in 2026. It is set to take over Front Range Village’s former Urban Air Adventure Park, 4250 Corbett Drive, with plans of opening there this fall, publicist Eden Zaslow told the Coloradoan on behalf of the company.
Unlike Colorado’s existing Centennial IKEA, which clocks in at a mammoth 415,000 square feet, the Fort Collins location will be much smaller at 64,000 square feet…