A sign placed on a Congress Street construction site suggesting an IKEA store was coming in 2016 ends up being a prank. 

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According to the Portland Press Herald, residents of Portland and surrounding towns began seeing posts on social media that the furniture store chain IKEA was opening a new location on Congress St. in 2016. Those social media posts were based on a small piece of signage that hung from some fencing surrounding a construction site that formerly housed the St. Patricks Roman Catholic Church. However, after excitement began to build, the owners of the construction site and the IKEA company both put those rumors to rest.

As it turns out, the signage was just a prank. The construction site in question will house a new Jewish community center beginning in 2017. IKEA also released a statement squashing the rumors of that being a future home for the furniture store, saying "We currently do not have plans to open a store in Portland, Maine."

So who placed the sign there? That's a question that city officials in Portland still don't have answers for. Deputy City Manager Anita LaChance suggested it was someone "with a lot of time of their hands". Check out the picture of the hoax signage as well as other quotes from IKEA and future plans for the construction site in question courtesy of the Portland Press Herald. 

Is it time for Portland to have an IKEA?

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