Brooklyn's Progress
August 2003

International Furniture Giant to Develop New Store and Create More than 500 Jobs in Red Hook

IKEA, a world-renowned furniture and housewares retailer with more than 180 stores in 31 countries, has chosen Brooklyn as the new home for its very first New York City store.  IKEA has proposed building a 340,000 square-foot store on a 22-acre waterfront parcel at the former New York Shipyard site in Red Hook, creating more than 500 permanent new jobs and providing Brooklyn and city residents with convenient access to its full line of high-quality, low-cost wares.

“Brooklyn residents have been one of the strongest and most important customer bases at both our New Jersey and Long Island stores,” said IKEA Real Estate Manager Pat Smith.  “We felt it was time that we provided Brooklynites and other New York City residents with convenient access to the IKEA experience.” 

IKEA estimates that city residents generate approximately $95 million in sales annually at these suburban stores, which, as Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President Kenneth Adams points out, represents a significant loss of sales tax revenue for New York City.  “In addition to recapturing these sales for the City,” said Mr. Adams, “IKEA Red Hook will mean hundreds of new jobs for Brooklyn residents.”  He concluded, “IKEA is among a host of major retailers who have recently recognized what a great market Brooklyn is and have decided to invest in our borough.”

Along with the new store, IKEA’s plans call for the creation of a new, landscaped 5.5-acre public waterfront esplanade that will return a significant portion of the Red Hook waterfront to the surrounding community.  The site also will include a new ferry landing to accommodate an innovative water-based transportation service.  A first-of-its-kind free IKEA ferry will transport up to 400 shoppers per hour between the site and a pier in Lower Manhattan.  This is coupled with free subway shuttle service and IKEA bus service from the Downtown Brooklyn transportation hub as part of IKEA’s comprehensive plan to address traffic generated by the new store.  IKEA also has committed to paying for numerous intersection improvements and other traffic mitigation efforts in the area.

The IKEA development team has spent the past several months meeting with elected officials, community groups, business leaders and civic organizations to share their plans for this major new project, which has just begun the City’s land use process to secure needed permits and variances.  To keep the community informed on its progress, IKEA also has created a dedicated website -- http://www.ikearedhook.com/ -- that contains site renderings, details of their transportation plans, and even an animated “fly-over” of the new store and the proposed waterfront park.  Company officials anticipate the store will open in 2005.

“We recognize that IKEA Red Hook is a big idea,” concluded IKEA’s Pat Smith, “but big ideas are what Brooklyn has always been about.”

For more information, go to http://www.ikearedhook.com/.