Hope soared.
But the rumors, as it turns out, were false. Daily RFT touched base with IKEA spokesman Joseph Roth last week, and he assured us that the Swedish furniture behemoth still has absolutely no plans to locate in St. Louis any time soon -- much less to a strip mall in Ballwin.
For one thing, as he notes, a strip mall would hardly be big enough for IKEA's giant store model. "I can tell that we need 30 acres of land --and we build from the ground up," he said. Equally importantly, "once we have final plans, I hold a press conference."
Oh.
Roth added, kindly, that his company recognizes that St. Louis is a "large metro area that down the road could support an IKEA store," but, again, "currently, we have no plans to come there."
Anything to the contrary, folks, is just wishful thinking.