After years of hoping and waiting, Madison is finally getting an IKEA.
Only this store, located next door to the Target store on Junction Road, will be significantly smaller than most IKEA locations and is designed to provide more convenience for shoppers.
The Swedish retailer announced Thursday that it plans to open a 54,000-square-foot store in the Prairie Towne Center store on the city’s Far West Side.
The store will include a deli but offer fewer furniture items than most of its warehouse stores. Larger things such as sofas and beds and the full IKEA product selection will be able to be ordered at the store or online, with options for delivery or free pickup at multiple Madison-area locations.
Prairie Towne Center along Junction Road on Madison’s Far West Side will soon be home to a scaled-down IKEA store. The Swedish retailer announced Thursday it will open this fall with 54,000 square feet. (The location in the Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek boasts nearly 300,000 square feet.)
The Madison store will be the retailer’s second store in Wisconsin. In 2018, the company opened a 290,000-square-foot store in the Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek. Prior to its opening, many Madison-area shoppers would head to Illinois to shop at the 400,000-square-foot, three-level IKEA in Schaumburg.
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In December, IKEA opened a pickup location at University Bookstore on State Street that included some small displays, but the IKEA planned to open this fall on Junction Road may eliminate the drives to those other locations and is part of a larger strategy by the retailer to reach more customers closer to where they typically shop.
“At IKEA, we believe that a better everyday life starts at home — and that means making shopping IKEA easy and convenient,” Rob Olson, interim CEO at IKEA U.S., said in a statement.
“Opening a new location in Madison is part of our continued commitment to reaching customers where they are, making well-designed, affordable home furnishing solutions more accessible and convenient than ever before.”
For years, many speculated that the area in or around Prairie Lakes in Sun Prairie, home to Costco, Target, Woodman’s Market, a Marcus cinema and a nearby Menards would be a logical site for an IKEA, considering its proximity to Interstate 39/90/94.
A former Bed Bath & Beyond sits empty at the Prairie Towne Center along Junction Road. The shopping center in recent years has also lost a Party City and Lands’ End but this fall will be home to an IKEA.
The smaller-format IKEA on Madison’s Far West Side is just over half the size of the neighboring Target and will bring new energy to Prairie Town Center that has lost in recent years major retailers like Party City, Bed Bath & Beyond and Lands’ End.
The shopping center remains home to a Metro Market, Once Upon a Child consignment store, Famous Footwear, Old Navy and a Mounds Pet Food Warehouse that opened in 2025.
The Madison IKEA is among more than 20 small-format stores that are planned for North America and Europe in the next six months, according to the Ingka Group, the largest IKEA franchisee holding company that controls about three-quarters of IKEA’s 500 stores in 63 countries.
“New smaller stores are a complement to our traditional stores and part of a broader commitment to optimizing store space, advancing digital capabilities and continuing the development of services,” Juvencio Maeztu, CEO of Ingka Group, said in March. “Our ambition is to come closer to customers with an affordable home furnishing range and a selected food offer, and to respond faster to what people want and where they want it.”
Other small IKEA stores opened in 2025 in Syracuse, New York, and in Dallas and Rockwall, Texas. A 75,000-square-foot IKEA also opened in early April in Phoenix, while others can be found in San Marcos, Arcadia and San Francisco, California.
The Madison IKEA will feature a variety of fully furnished room settings showcasing “local living” solutions tailored to reflect the “needs, lifestyles, and spaces of the Madison community,” IKEA said in a statement.
The company said more than 5,000 products will be on display, with a curated selection of approximately 3,000 products available for immediate takeaway, including home furnishing accessories such as textiles, lighting, accent pieces, and more than 130 furniture items.
The location will include a planning area where customers can meet with IKEA planners for consultations over kitchens, wardrobes, bathrooms, living room storage, and small‑space solutions.
The store also will include a small As‑Is section, offering used products and discontinued items, and its Swedish Deli, offering a variety of hot and cold IKEA favorites such as meatballs, plant balls, falafel balls, hot dogs, veggie dogs, cinnamon buns and more, available to eat at the store or take home.
