IKEA buys Brooklyn site.

After an uphill struggle, IKEA is about to realize its dream of building its first store in New York City next to the loading docks of Red Hook, Brooklyn. Last week, the Swedish furniture manufacturer and its brokers announced that IKEA has purchased a 48-acre Brooklyn waterfront site from U.S. Dredging Corp. for $31.25 million. The retail giant plans to build a 346,000 s/f store and 1,400 parking spaces on the land, in addition to creating a waterfront esplanade and providing ferry service to and from Manhattan.

"IKEA Red Hook is poised to become one of the most important economic development projects in Brooklyn in decades, and we can't wait to invest in the borough, its residents and its future," proclaims the promo on the company's official Red Hook website.

But while IKEA executives must be overjoyed to finally get the go-ahead on the project--it had taken them three years and several rounds of a public review process--it hasn't been an easy deal. The new store is expected to create 500 to 600 permanent jobs in Red Hook, but some community activists were dead set against it, citing the possibility of traffic gridlock and damage to landmark structures in the historic neighborhood.

Last year, for example, John McGettrick, of the Red Hook Civic Association, had this to say about the new IKEA: "If they persist on pushing this environmental disaster on our community, we will sue. It guarantees gridlock traffic, more pollution, more accidents, loss of parking and degradation of our main park."

Fortunately for IKEA, others in the community were more impressed by the prospect of new jobs and improved transportation.

"There was some community opposition, but the board voted to approve [the project] 47 to 1," said Eastern Consolidated brokers Jeffrey B. Troy and Louis Ricci, who represented U.S. Dredging Corp. in the transaction along with colleague Brian Ezratty.

The brokers, who have been working on the deal since June of 2002, think the new store will benefit the neighborhood. "We think it's going to help the gentrification of Red Hook," they said. It took much longer than IKEA expected to get the project started. Back in 2003, the company estimated 2005 as the opening date for the new store.

"It's a very complicated project--hopefully, soon we can begin the demolition of the existing buildings, followed by asbestos remediation and then construction," said Joseph Roth, a spokesman for the chain. "Construction could end up lasting a year, a year and a half, but we are still aiming for late fall of 2006 [opening]." In addition to permanent jobs, the new IKEA store is expected to create 500 to 600 construction jobs.