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Swedish home furnishings retailer IKEA has announced plans to open a Miami-Dade store in the city of Sweetwater, Florida, which will be the retailer's fourth store in the state.

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The proposed IKEA store will sprawl over a 14.6 acres site in the west of Miami International Airport at the intersection of the Dolphin Expressway (SR 836) and Florida Turnpike. The store will sit next to the Dolphin Mall.

The proposed store will encompass an area of 417,000 square feet. The two-level store will feature 1,500 vehicles parking garage. The store will imbibe the unique architectural design of IKEA stores and will be inspired from the Swedish heritage. It will feature 10,000 exclusively designed items on display. The store will also have 50 room-settings, three model home interiors, a supervised children's play area, and a 500-seat restaurant serving Swedish specialties.

The store's design will include several sustainable elements, which will reduce its footprint on the nature. The sustainable elements to be adopted at the store will consist of waste material recycling; energy-efficient HVAC and lighting systems, recycled construction materials, skylights in warehouse areas, and water-conserving restrooms. The company is planning to run the store on renewable energy, like 89% of its stores in the US.

It will incorporate sustainable practices in operations also, which includes elimination of plastic bags from the check-out process, phasing-out the sale of incandescent light bulbs and facilitating recycling of customers' compact fluorescent bulbs.

Construction of IKEA store is expected to start in the first quarter of 2013, which is contingent on the approval from the city of Sweetwater. The company has filed an application for the scheme to the city council. The store is scheduled to open in late 2014.