The former IKEA store in Coventry. Photo by English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images. The UK city of Coventry plans to open an enormous new arts center in a former IKEA store. The seven-story building, which has more than 580,000 square feet of floor space, will become among the biggest cultural hubs in the world. The Coventry city council acquired the massive building, which was vacated by the Swedish furniture giant last February, after officials voted in favor of plans to convert it into a new national collections center. The council did not say how much it paid for the site, but it plans to spend £1.31 million (around $1.8 million) to convert it into the planned hub, which is scheduled to open in August 2023, according to the BBC.