The Mayor of Pulianas, on the outskirts Granada, announced that Ikea has completely abandoned the idea of building a Granada branch there.

This was going to be the first shop in the province belonging to this multinational Swedish company, but after nine years of wrangling, they finally got sick and tired of it and pulled out.

The projected location was more or less behind Kinépolis, where other popular supermarket chains can be found, such as Media Market.

So what exactly went wrong?

Well, if we are to believe Mayor José Antonio Carranza Ruiz and the Swedish company, the small land owners of the area that was going to make up the plot were just wasting people’s time.

“Dreams, projects, hope and expectation have disappeared in Pulianas,” he complained, “mainly owing to urban development and economic demands from known businessmen, who are the owners of small plots where the store was to go.”

The Mayor explained that the blow fell on the 14th during a meeting with Ikea representatives in Spain on the subject of how things were going. In fact, as far as Ikea was concerned, the project died 18 months ago.

But the Mayor hasn’t given up and urges the company to reconsider.

It was back in 2006 when the company announced that is was going to build one of its colossal stores in Pulianas; the first in Granada, and announced, optimistically, as it turned out, that it would open its doors in 2008…

(News: Pulianas, Granada, Andalucia – Photo jose diaz garcia)