IKEA to rename “Livat” shopping center in San Francisco

IKEA-owned Ingka Centres decided to create a new brand for a mixed-use center.

The 250,000-square-foot center is scheduled to open in the spring of 2024. The facility is located at 945 Market Street. Currently, the shopping center with an IKEA store at its head has a working name of “San Francisco Meeting Place,” and the new name is being kept secret.

“The name of the meeting place is right now still a secret,” said Miia Kautovaara, the local-based manager of what’s temporarily being referred to as the San Francisco Meeting Place, in an interview this week. “It won’t be called Livat.”

The company assures that it intends to create “something special” in San Francisco. The company will develop unique names for its new projects as part of its new development strategy.

The multifunctional shopping center was originally planned to be called 6×6, and last year Ingka announced the opening under the global Livat brand. The complex was supposed to open in San Francisco in 2021, but the project has undergone changes and redesigns, and its launch has been delayed several times.

The new center’s main tenant will be an 87,000-square-foot IKEA store, which will open by the end of 2023. The mall’s top floor will feature a 46,000-square-foot co-working space under the Hej!Workshop brand, which New York-based Industrious will manage.

As of the third quarter of 2023, Ingka has eleven Livat malls in operation and under construction. With the launch of the new project in San Francisco, the company is entering the North American market for the first time with its new meeting center format.