Ikea Invades Brooklyn!

NYC flat-out rejected the world’s largest retailer Wal-Mart from opening up a big-box-style store a few years ago. So, when Ikea was approved to pave its own way into the neighborhood of Red Hook in Brooklyn, heads turned and lots of questions were asked. Would they be nice to an already established neighborhood? Would they hire locally? Would traffic to the store turn the area into a round-the-clock rush-hour?

Apparently, Ikea listened:

Accomplishing that feat took eight years and involved overcoming a lawsuit that objected to issues ranging from environmental to racial, and of course traffic. In response, Ikea is dredging Erie Basin in Red Hook, Brooklyn, where the new store is located. It is also making a priority of hiring from the neighborhood, giving anyone with a 11231 zipcode “a three-week head start in the application process.”

Perhaps most important, it is offering no fewer than five ways to get to this Ikea store. There are “shuttles from three subway stations” and two bus lines “will be extended to reach Ikea … A free water taxi, operated by New York Water Taxi and paid for by Ikea, will leave from Pier 11 in Lower Manhattan and go to Ikea’s own dock every 40 minutes … You can also drive, which is what most people in the world do to get to Ikea,” which will have a parking lot that can accommodate up to 1,500 cars. Finally, Ikea “will be offering a courier service … where a box of three cubic feet can be delivered the same day or the next day.”

Ikea also hopes to ingratiate itself with its new neighbors by playing “to the neighborhood’s maritime history. It has preserved four sweeping cranes that were once used for loading and unloading. Old tools found on the site were painted orange and transformed into a public art exhibit … Chocks, stone blocks used to secure boats, have been lined up and labeled after historic ships that once docked at Red Hook.”

[via reveries]