Ikea in Merriam completes another step for its fall opening

Eleven months after its groundbreaking, Ikea has completed the underground geothermal work for its Merriam store.

The store is expected to be the largest single building with geothermal heating and cooling in Kansas or Missouri when it opens this fall. The Swedish home furnishings retailer provided a construction update Tuesday on what will be its first location in the two states.

The underground work for the geothermal system involved drilling 180 boreholes — 6 inches in diameter and 600 feet deep — across part of the 19-acre parcel at Johnson Drive and Interstate 35. The company has also integrated other environmentally friendly measures into the store’s design and construction.

The Merriam store will be the second U.S. Ikea location using geothermal technology. A Denver area Ikea store opened with geothermal heating and cooling in 2011.

The 359,000-square-foot Merriam store is scheduled to open after Labor Day but before Thanksgiving, the company said.

Ikea also has hired most of its management team and full-time employees but still needs to fill about 75 part-time positions. The company has said it expects to employ about 300 workers here.

Ikea has more than 350 stores in 44 countries, including 38 in the U.S.

This story was originally published June 10, 2014 at 9:21 AM with the headline "Ikea in Merriam completes another step for its fall opening."