DELFT, NETHERLANDS-Swedish furniture retail giant IKEA has won the green light for a $218 million retail and service center for the town of Częstochowa, Poland, on the main road leading to Warsaw. It also plans a residential, office and retail project in the Romanian capital of Bucharest.

Approval for the Polish project comes as Częstochowa city council has passed a new zoning plan for the area where IKEA is planning the project. Previously, it was only zoned for industrial and service premises.

In Romania, shareholders of Romanian company Timpuri Noiwhich, in the process of selling a land plot near Bucharest city centre to IKEA’s real estate development division, have won a court ruling upholding zoning approved earlier for the area. Inter IKEA, part of the Swedish furniture giant, bought the former Timpuri Noi factory for $50 million in summer 2010, Property Xpress reported. It plans to develop a mixed-use project on the site.