In a development that may seem a bit anticlimactic to Red Hook residents, who have been rallying for and against a planned Ikea big-box store on the neighborhood’s southern waterfront for more than a year, the Swedish home furnishings giant said this week it had completed its purchase of the Erie Basin site.

And in an announcement sure to generate even more attention to Ikea’s first New York City store, the multinational chain said this week that the Red Hook store would be its largest worldwide. Plans for a Red Hook Ikea passed nearly unanimously in the City Council last October.

Even in the face of steady opposition to the project from residents fearful of the quality-of-life and health impacts of bringing so much traffic through the neighborhood, as well as from preservationist groups who argued against the paving over of the 22-acre former New York Shipyard site and graving dock between Dwight and Columbia Streets along the Erie Basin, the plan passed city review based largely on the promise of jobs to residents of the Red Hook Houses public housing complexes, which account for more than 70 percent of the neighborhood’s population and carry a near 20 percent unemployment rate.

Ikea purchased the property for $31.25 million.

“This is unquestionably an important milestone for all New York City residents,” said Brian Ezratty, vice chairman of Eastern Consolidated, which represented the sellers, U.S. Dredging Corp.

“It means jobs for Brooklyn residents and a boon for Manhattan shoppers,” he said, pointing out the distance New Yorkers must travel to get to Ikea’s two closest stores in the New Jersey cities of Paramus and Elizabeth.

Kenneth Roth, president of Ikea’s buying agent, Rothwood Real Estate, said of the purchase, “Ikea has been waiting for the opportunity to situate in one of New York City’s boroughs for a long time.”

Roth added: “We are very excited to play a significant role in the continuing gentrification of Red Hook, with the opening of the 24th American store, which will be Ikea’s largest.”

The U.S. Dredging Corp. had been acting as the contracted agents for demolition of a series of Civil War-era buildings on the site.

The company still faces up to $86,400 in fines for violations issued by the city Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) after U.S. Dredging was determined to have commenced an illegal demolition of a warehouse on Beard Street riddled with asbestos.

Since the disturbance and possible release of asbestos in the surrounding area, Ikea’s support in the community by job advocates and unemployed tenants of the Red Hook Houses, has waned to some degree.

At a recent hearing held by the state Department of Environmental Conservation to address plans by the company to restore bulkheads, very few attendees voiced support for the plan.

And on May 26, a state Supreme Court judge heard arguments in a lawsuit brought against Ikea by Red Hook community groups that say the city illegally granted the company the right to rezone and build on the waterfront. According to the complaint filed in Manhattan civil court, the City Council and City Planning Commission gave Ikea the nod based on “false information” the company provided them.

Antonia Bryson, the lawyer representing the Red Hook civic groups, argued that the furniture giant was remiss in reporting the impact of the store on traffic, pollution and local business.

The suit seeks to void the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) used in the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, which required review by and hearings before the community board, borough president, City Planning Commission and City Council.

The civil suit was filed by groups of community organizations including the Coalition to Revitalize Our Waterfronts Now (CROWN), Groups Against Garbage Sites (GAGS) and the Red Hook Civic Association, and also includes individual area residents as plaintiffs.

©2005 Community Newspaper Group