In a statement, the company said that, “following its expansion plan for Portugal” it has this week received “commercial licenses for the Ikea project in Loulé, which includes the construction of a store, a shopping centre and an ‘outlet’.”
In its statement the Swedish group recalled that the €200 million project will create 3,000 direct and indirect jobs.
The inauguration of the Ikea store is pencilled in for sometime next year, with the rest of the project – the 125-store shopping centre and 195-shop outlet – opening the year after.
Contacted by Lusa News Agency, an official spokesperson for Ikea said building will begin at the start of this summer.
It has been a rocky road to the point of Ikea securing its licences, with the project having been widely contested from several angels.
In March this year the Mayor of Faro, which neighbours with Loulé, had voiced concerns about paying out compensation after a project for a slip-road to link the A22 motorway to the future Ikea shopping centre was flunked by local authorities.
Rogério Bacalhau explained that the process has been ongoing since 2012 and certain commitments between Faro council and Ikea, namely with regard to the acquisition of the land where the slip-road was to be built – which was bought with the company’s money but put in the council’s name – had already been made.
In July last year the Algarve’s Committee for Coordination and Regional Development (CCDR) gave only “conditioned assent” to the commercial project which will see the Algarve’s first IKEA store take shape in Loulé.
In a statement sent to The Portugal News, the CCDR said it had taken complaints from local associations and private entities on board when making its decision.
It was understood that water resources and noise concerns prevent the Committee from giving an unrestricted go-ahead.
A month earlier in May the environmental watchdog Quercus and the Algarve Trade and Commerce Association reiterated their strong opposition to an environmental impact study presented by the promoters of IKEA.
Public consultation on the project ended on Tuesday 27 May 2014, with the two groups arguing that the study should be rejected for a number of reasons, including the fact that it is set to be built on what was once agricultural land and that only economic interests are being safeguarded.
The associations also argued that no reference was made to industrial locations in the region which could be better equipped to house the new store, without causing more negative environmental impacts than have already been placed on those particular sites.
The environmental impact study published in April 2014 concluded that there are no social or environmental impacts which should condition the building of the IKEA megastore and that it should therefore be given the green light.
The project had been due for completion before last summer, but it has been held back by successive delays and stern opposition from local business associations.
The project is expected to cover four plots in Loulé, totalling an area of 242,353 square metres, 81,337 of which are reserved for green spaces and road access.