Burbank’s new IKEA will be the largest in North America and it needs more employees to handle the workload
The current Burbank IKEA will close, but a new location is nearing completion across San Fernando Blvd. When it opens, it will be the largest IKEA in North America.
With Burbank’s new IKEA store just months away from opening, the Swedish furniture retailer is looking to hire 140 additional employees to join its existing local employee base.
The 400 employees at the current IKEA will move over to the 456,000-square-foot facility at 805 S. San Fernando Blvd. once it is completed. However, the new store, which will be the largest IKEA in North America, will need more employees to satisfy the expected demands, company spokesman Joseph Roth said.
“The current store is already a busy, and we’re going to be bigger and busier at the new location,” he said.
The new positions will include home furnishing sales, customer service, cashiers, warehouse workers and food-service employees.
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Roth said that the new restaurant will be able to seat about 600 guests, so the additional employees are needed to keep up with extra customer turnover.
Though there is yet to be a specific date when the store will open, Roth said that company officials are confident that it will be opening this coming spring.
From the outside, the new store looks nearly completed. However, Roth said there is still a lot of work to be done inside the building.
“The remaining work on the outside relates to the parking structure and some off-site roadwork,” he said. “But there’s carpentry, mechanical, electrical and plumbing work being done on the inside. That’s where the bulk of the construction work is focused right now.”
Earlier this summer, 47 large, industrial air-conditioning units were airlifted on top of the building via helicopter.
Property developers of the existing IKEA store in Burbank, which was the first IKEA in California, are working to submit plans to the city for a mixed-use project with 765 apartments and about 40,000 square feet of retail space on the ground level to replace the existing 242,000-square-foot store.
To apply for a position at the new Burbank IKEA, visit seeacareerwithus.com.
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Anthony Clark Carpio, anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com
Twitter: @acocarpio
