In an attempt to expand its furniture stores into urban areas, the parent company of Ikea purchased its second retail complex in Brighton, England, for an estimated £145 million. The largest furniture retailer in the world is to construct a new Ikea shop in Churchill Square, the south coast city, within two years after taking over an abandoned Debenhams location, of which around a third is vacant. The transaction takes place over three years after the Ingka Group's Ingka Centres business purchased Hammersmith, west London's Kings Mall. There, it rebranded Livat and added new tenants, including the Library of Things and Lidl, to help fill the space that had previously housed an Ikea.

Additionally, Ikea is turning Oxford Circus in London, the former home of Topshop, into an outlet. Recently, the launch date was moved up to autumn 2024 from October 1st, 2021. After many attempts to create tiny local stores more convenient for those without cars, Ikea debuted its newest city store idea, Hammersmith, on a worldwide scale. It has experimented with, then closed, larger warehouse shops in Coventry and Tottenham in north London, as well as a few smaller high street locations, including one on Tottenham Court Road in central London in 2020. Ingka has begun buying up moribund shopping malls to develop city centre destinations as the value of those sites has fallen amid hefty competition from online shopping, which has driven many retailers to slim down the size of their chains. The post-Covid shift to working from home has also hit city centres.

Churchill Square’s owner, the fund manager Abrdn, had hoped to sell the centre for £250m when it was put on the market last year, but it agreed a deal with Ingka Centres for £145m, according to the property trade journal React News. Ingka did not comment on the price. This summer Ikea reopened in San Francisco’s former 6X6 “ghost mall” which had lain empty since its completion in 2016. The group is also redeveloping Toronto’s Aura Podium, which formerly housed a branch of Bed, Bath & Beyond, and a complex of shopping centres and offices in Place d’Italie, Paris. The Brighton site, which will continue trading while the department store is being revamped, includes the Chartwell Court residential tower block and three car parks, two of which are freeholds.