IKEA’s proposal to build a large new outlet in Red Hook, Broooklyn is dividing the community. Part of it, represented by the Red Hook Civic Association, opposes the plan because of the traffic it will bring. The other, including the Red Hook Tenants Association, wants the 600 or so jobs the store promises. The split is generally along race and class lines.

The store, on a 22 acre site, will be IKEA’s largest in the United States. It will generate about 11,000 total car trips on a busy day, and 100 trucks the company says will mostly run in off-hours. 34% of trips to the store would come from the Gowanus. The plan calls for weekend ferries from Manhattan and new bus service —NYC Transit has reportedly agreed to extend the B77 and B61 buses. The plan would also involve a number of road widenings (including 5-6 lanes around the site on Beard St.). About 1,500 parking spaces are planned.

The company says Red Hook residents will get a two-week head start to apply for IKEA jobs, which will include benefits. Many who favor the store are still concerned about its transportation impacts.

Of course, development in New York City does not have to mean excessive traffic, but public officials have to be willing to make the company break from its suburban drive-up model.

There is no evidence IKEA is investigating much beyond the transplant of its Elizabeth/Hicksville-type stores to Brooklyn. IKEA consultant Sam Schwartz says at the Elizabeth IKEA, about one third of goods bought by New Yorkers are delivered and the rest taken away by car. Delivery prices there are a flat $100. Schwartz said a Red Hook delivery company may be able to provide cheaper service, giving customers less reason to drive. Limiting the amount of parking, and charging for it, would also obviously affect how customers travel to the site.

The Manhattan Institute has called for Red Hook to be rezoned prior to any major development decisions. "Let’s get the rezoning and see what the private sector proposes," Julia Vitullo-Martin wrote in the group’s March 2004 newsletter. She chided top officials for ignoring appropriate neighborhood development in favor of projects like stadiums. Another development group, with the support of the Red Hook Civic Association, is discussing a 70-acre mixed use village development in the neighborhood. But that plan may not bring as much new employment to the area as IKEA.