Ikea in Brighton: Retailer takes over Churchill Square shopping centre in £145m deal - what is the opening date?

IKEA will open up a new store in Brighton city centre after it purchased Churchill Square shopping centre for an estimated £145m as part of efforts to bring its furniture stores into the heart of cities. IKEA's parent company, the Ingka Group, confirmed it will open a store there and hopes to rejuvenate the complex. 

The retailer plans to convert an empty Debenhams site into a new Ikea store which is expected to open within two years. Around a third of Churchill Square’s shopping spaces are currently empty. According to reports, investment company Abrdn had originally hoped to sell the centre for around £250m.

The Brighton site will continue trading while the department store is being revamped. It includes a Chartwell Court residential tower block and three car parks, two of which are freeholds. Other retailers already at the site include Apple, Next, H&M and Urban Outfitters.

The deal comes after the firm bought the Kings Mall in Hammersmith, west London, where it installed an Ikea in a former Debenhams and brought in new tenants including the Library of Things and Lidl to help fill the site, which it renamed Livat.

IKEA is also converting the former Topshop flagship store on London’s Oxford Circus into an outlet. The opening date was recently delayed by a year until autumn 2024.

Cindy Andersen, the managing director of Ingka Centres, said Churchill Square “fits perfectly into our global expansion strategy, allowing us to transform a traditional retail space to a meeting place that is much more than just a place to shop. She added that the group intended to bring together a range of “affordable and sustainable” outlets including retail, restaurants, services and amenities at the site.

The new plans come after IKEA announced a 11.9% rise in turnover in the last financial year to £2.5bn. Globally, Ingka Group's retail sales also rose 5.7% to £36bn. The company said that 38.5% of its UK sales had been made online, up from 35.8% a year earlier.

An opening date for the Ikea City store has not yet been confirmed.