Home furnishings giant IKEA announced in November it will open its first Utah store in early 2007 on 40 acres on the northwestern corner of Interstate 15 and Bangerter Highway. A report by CB Richard Ellis shows that the Swedish retailer isn't the only one that has noticed that the Salt Lake area's population has reached the magic threshold of 2 million.

Many retailers, including IKEA, like to expand in metropolitan areas with a population of at least 2 million. The population of the four main Wasatch Front counties - Salt Lake, Utah, Davis and Weber counties - is about 1.9 million, according to state population estimates.

"The biggest things to retailers are population density, population growth and income," said Chris Gentzkow, senior associate at CB Richard Ellis. "We've reached a critical level of population, our population is growing and both our income levels and education levels are very attractive, compared with the rest of the country."

Demand for retail space has driven down vacancies in Salt Lake City to 7.2 percent from 8.6 percent in the third quarter of 2005, according to the CB Richard Ellis report.

In recent months, a handful of high-profile retailers that have passed over the Salt Lake City area in the past have expanded in Utah for the first time. The state's first Apple Store opened in late November in the Gateway shopping center in downtown Salt Lake City, while a mammoth Cabela's hunting and fishing superstore opened in Lehi in August.

Neither California-based Sports Chalet nor Oklahoma City-based Hobby Lobby had any comment about Utah stores. Also mum are a number of additional retailers - including Whole Foods and Urban Outfitters - that are rumored to be planning their first Utah stores. Most retailers have a set timetable in which to announce stores and do not like to confirm their plans before that point.

Some retailers are building new stores, while others are filling existing space emptied in recent years by companies such as Kmart and Ultimate Electronics that either exited the market or closed a number of stores.

Home decor retailer HomeGoods, for example, located in a building vacated by Ultimate Electronics when it opened in Utah in October, Gentzkow said.

Another sign of the increasing optimism in Utah as a site for retail expansion is the Terrace at Traverse Mountain development in Lehi, a $250 million regional mall being planned by Mountain Home Development in Lehi and Cleveland, Ohio-based Forest City Enterprises.

The two companies have 1.2 million square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space to market starting early next year when they finish design of the development, which is set to be twice the size of the Gateway shopping center.

Richard Rozier of Mountain Home Development said the Wasatch Front is ripe for additional retail development - even one as large as his own.

He points to Utah's labor pool, which is the youngest in the country. The Utah Department of Workforce Services estimates that 47 percent of Utah's labor force is 15 to 35 years of age.

Retailers like areas not only with concentrated populations but those with a high share of young people, Rozier said.

"All things being equal, young people spend more of their income than older people do."