October 17 (SeeNews) - Swedish home furnishing retailer IKEA will lay the foundation stone of its first store in Slovenia on Thursday, local media reported.
The investment in the store in the capital Ljubljana is planned at 90 million euro ($100 million), with construction works expected to last a year, state news agency STA reported.
The store will spread on an area of 30,000 square metres and will employ 300 people.
IKEA announced it would enter the Slovenian market five years ago but the project has been delayed due to complications with the land purchase and the issuance of building permits.
Slovenia's environment ministry eventually issued a building permit for the Ljubljana store in August. In February, the Ljubljana City Council dropped a requirement that IKEA should build a roundabout at the southern access to Ljubljana's BTC shopping district, where the store will be located, in order for the company to obtain the building permit for the project.
($ = 0.899227 euro)