The future use of the former Kaufhof goods store in downtown Nuremberg continues to take shape. The clothing dealer Rudolf Wöhrl SE, who was based in the Franconian metropolis, who had already announced in June to set up an outlet store on the ground floor of the building, which has been vacant since 2023, announced further news on Thursday.
Accordingly, the Swedish furniture store Ikea will open a pop-up store there. “The approximately 165 square meter part of the area is integrated into the temporary fashion outlet planned by the Nuremberg fashion company Wöhrl,” said the retailer. With this, “the former department store in a central downtown location continues with new life”. With the planned Wöhrl-Outlet and “supplementary gastronomic offers”, “a diverse attraction is created that further revives the building and the surrounding area”.
Wöhrl CEO Thomas Weckerlein paid tribute to the collaboration. “With IKEA we win an attractive partner for the pop-up area in our planned outlet,” he emphasized in a statement. “This is a strong addition to our concept and shows that through our active action we were able to inspire another company for downtown Nuremberg.” The preparations for the opening of the outlet meanwhile went “at full speed”, explained Weckerlein. “We start from the start in mid -September.”
The department store has been empty since 2023
Nuremberg Mayor Marcus König also welcomed the project. “I am very pleased that Ikea has decided to implement an innovative pop-up concept in the middle of Nuremberg city center,” he said, according to a message. “The intermediate use of the former Kaufhof building is not only expanded to include an attractive facet, but also our entire city center gains noticeably through the presence of Ikea.”
The building in the central Nuremberg shopping mile Königstrasse has been empty since Kaufhof moved out in June 2023. Last year the city of Nuremberg acquired the property and examined possible usage options. At the end of June, the rental agreement with Wöhrl for the outlet store was presented. It is planned “an attractive retail concept that is supplemented by temporary formats such as pop-up stores and shop-in-shop offers,” it said at the time. Another component was added with the temporary Ikea store.