IKEA is coming to Tennessee! Wait....Memphis?!?!

It's been confirmed. IKEA will be opening a store in Memphis. You read that right, MEMPHIS. While our "It City" has been on a seemingly unstoppable roll - this news no doubt has a lot of Nashvillians scratching their heads and wondering "Why not us?".

Rumors started to heat up yesterday amid a mysterious press conference to be held the following morning by Memphis mayor AC Wharton. The news broke late last night that it was indeed IKEA reps that would be standing on the podium next to Wharton to make the announcement that Memphis will be the first Tennessee city to land the Swedish furniture giant.

The press conference began at 11am this morning, and the few tidbits that I've gathered are that the store will be located in the Cordova area just south of I-40 behind a Costco. They plan to open in Fall of 2016.

While this news may seem to further diminish Nashville's chances of landing an IKEA store, Ryan Poe, a writer for the Memphis Business Journal, had this to tweet leading up to the presser:

And then this tweet came during the press conference:

So while this isn't anything concrete (more particleboard-ish...like most of IKEA's furniture) - it does give Nashvillians a bit of hope. And hey, even if we don't hear about an IKEA in Nashville before the Fall of 2016 - at least Memphis is 45 mins quicker than Atlanta...and we've still got better BBQ.

UPDATE:
Nashville Business Journal senior reporter Adam Sichko had a brief discussion with IKEA spokesperson Joseph Roth who was in Memphis today and was able to dive a little deeper into the how and why of IKEA's decision to open in Memphis. Great read here.