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An aerial view of University of Phoenix Stadium, Gila River Arena and the Westgate Entertainment District in Glendale.
Taxpayers have been more than generous in the long-running Coyotes stadium saga.
Tanger Outlets opened in 2012.
Tavern+Bowl, which includes a microbrewery, restaurant and bowling, opened in Westgate in May 2017.
Architectural Photography by Michael Baxter, Baxter Imaging LLC
Seventy-six loft-style apartments on the third and fourth floors of the Westgate Entertainment District opened for lease in January 2018.
Golf-entertainment venue Topgolf plans to open at the northwest corner of Loop 101 and Bethany Home Road, just across the freeway from University of Phoenix Stadium, in 2018.
Drive Shack, another golf-entertainment venue, also plans to open west of Loop 101, near Bethany Home Road, in 2018.
Tom Simes spent the past decade studying and working the comedy scene before opening Stir Crazy Comedy Club at the Westgate Entertainment District in Glendale in 2017.
The 120-seat Stir Crazy Comedy Club is on the second floor, above Whiskey Rose, in the Westgate Entertainment District in Glendale.
A rendering of the proposed Glendale IKEA location.
Fat Tuesday, a venue with food, frozen drinks and a dance floor, plans to expand from its Tempe location to Westgate in April 2018.
Manna Korean BBQ is expected to open at Westgate in summer 2018.
Glendale will get its first Dutch Bros. Coffee at Westgate in early 2018. The popular coffee spot will front Glendale Avenue.
A company owned by Scottsdale billionaire Bob Parsons, founder of GoDaddy.com, purchased the Westgate Entertainment District for $133 million in June 2018.
Westgate Entertainment District in Glendale encompasses 533,000 square feet of retail shops, restaurants, offices and residences.
University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale is about to get a gargantuan new neighbor — IKEA.
The Swedish furniture and home furnishings giant plans to build its second Arizona store on 29 acres at the southeast corner of Bethany Home Road and Loop 101 — just south of the football stadium.
Pending city approvals, construction on the 348,000-square-foot store is expected to begin next fall, with the opening in spring 2020.
IKEA, which is known for massive stores that contain full room displays and sell furniture, home decor and gadgets, opened in Tempe in 2004. The company said the new Glendale location will accommodate customers living in the West Valley.
RELATED: 10 things to do at Westgate in Glendale
“This proposed Glendale store would complement our Phoenix-area presence established in Tempe and bring the unique family-friendly shopping experience closer to customers in the West Valley and beyond," IKEA U.S. President Lars Petersson said in a written statement.
The Glendale store would include nearly 10,000 items, 50 room settings, three model home interiors, a children’s play area and a restaurant, according to the company.
Here are four fun facts about Swedish home furniture and decor store IKEA.
The project is the latest to be announced or to open in Glendale's sports and entertainment district.
In August, TopGolf announced it would open a golf-entertainment venue just across the freeway from the planned IKEA. Loft-style apartments are expected soon in the Westgate Entertainment District, the restaurant, entertainment and shopping hub around the football stadium and hockey arena. And there's been a string of other projects such as more restaurants, a bowling alley-microbrewery combo and a hotel.
The nearby Desert Diamond Casino West Valley also will begin building its larger resort and casino by the end of the year.
City Manager Kevin Phelps said the IKEA deal is a sign of continued growth.
“The freeway access and visibility, the available workforce and the energy of Glendale’s Sports and Entertainment District make it the perfect location for IKEA," Phelps said in a written statement.
RELATED: Conair warehouse in Glendale creates 350 jobs, huge corporate campus
IKEA expects to add more than 500 jobs during the construction phase, and hire roughly 300 workers after completion.
Economic Development Director Brian Friedman said IKEA should spur further growth.
“This city has been amassing an impressive list of corporations that now call
Glendale home,” Friedman said in a written statement. “These new businesses account for more than two-million-square-feet of new construction in this dynamic district alone."
The IKEA is planned on farm fields previously held by the Bidwill family, the longtime owners of the Arizona Cardinals.
At the height of the real-estate boom in 2007, the NFL family envisioned a high-density corporate center with a 400-foot skyscraper rivaling those in downtown Phoenix. By 2010, two years into the Great Recession, the land was in foreclosure and went back to the lender.
IKEA purchased 67 acres, just under half of it for the store and its 1,100-space parking lot, Phelps said. The company plans to work with the city and developers to bring in businesses that complement IKEA.
Further south along Loop 101, a project called Urban 95 should bring a hotel, multi-family homes and more commercial development. All of this will change the area's landscape over the next 24 to 36 months, Phelps said.
"You go about a one-mile circle around IKEA and you're going to see, I think, one of the hottest real-estate areas in the entire Valley," Phelps said.
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