When Ikea acquired the former Kings Mall two years ago, the run-down Hammersmith shopping centre had more than a quarter of its stores vacant.
On Thursday, the Swedish furniture giant's £170 million experiment in west London will be put to the test with the launch of Livat.
Livat is the company's first city centre shopping mall with a global appeal and the first to be renovated rather than created from the ground up.
While Ikea operates 47 additional shopping centres worldwide, Livat is slightly over a third the size of an average Ikea location and the company's first in Britain.
Additionally, Livat is home to Ikea's only high street location in the United Kingdom - a quarter the size of a conventional store.
The former Kings Mall is now completely leased, with new tenants including German bargain supermarket Lidl, social venture Library of Things, and Sook, a rent-by-the-hour retail or event space adjacent to an Ikea outlet.
The mall, which Ikea purchased and redeveloped for £170 million, will have a small market hall for pop-up restaurants as well as Ikea's own Swedish Deli and two additional cafés serving meatballs, open sandwiches, and coffee.
Brightly colored seats along a repaved atrium will lead to a locally managed cafe above the mall, which will be adjacent to a reimagined outdoor space for council tenants in the residential block above, complete with a wildflower meadow, seating, and plants.
The endeavor is a calculated wager on a post-COVID-19 world. It opens the way for the redevelopment of the old Topshop flagship on London's Oxford Street, which will reopen as Ikea next autumn as part of the Swedish group's £1 billion capital expansion plan over the next three years.
Ikea will reopen San Francisco's 6X6 "ghost mall" later this year, after it sat vacant since it was finished in 2016.
Meanwhile, the firm is redeveloping Toronto's Aura Podium, which once contained a Bed, Bath & Beyond and several eateries.
The Hammersmith shop opens a year later than anticipated because to the pandemic-related delays in knocking down smaller stores, a former Debenhams, and a basement area that was originally many stockrooms.
As purchasing preferences evolve, Peter Jelkeby, manager of Ikea's UK retail operations, said the retailer would examine a variety of alternatives to fill in gaps and make the furnishings department more accessible in London.
Last year, the business sold more than 40% of its products in the UK online, up from 20% in 2019.
