Ikea to Open in Queens Next Summer
By Nicholas Rizzi September 25, 2019 1:21 pm
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Swedish furniture retailer Ikea plans to open its first Queens outpost in the Rego Center mall next summer, the company announced yesterday.
Ikea inked a 10-year lease yesterday with Vornado Realty Trust for 115,000 square feet in the three-story shopping center at 61-35 Junction Boulevard in Rego Park, a spokeswoman for Ikea said. The Ikea spokeswoman declined to provide the asking rent, but CoStar (CSGP) Group data shows it ranges from $54 to $65 per square foot in the property.
The furniture giant has started a push in 2017 to open smaller-format stores in city centers with a footprint of 70,000 to 150,000 square feet, as Commercial Observer reported. That’s roughly one-third the size, give or take, of its typical 400,000-square-foot warehouses.
The Queens outpost will have “thousands of Ikea products for purchase and takeaway” but larger furniture items will be available for delivery only, the company said.
Ikea opened its first U.S. city center location in April with the 17,530-square-foot “Ikea Planning Studio” at 999 Third Avenue in the Upper East Side, which allows customers to browse popular Ikea wares but only order them for delivery.
“It’s an exciting time for IKEA as we enter this next phase of our expansion into major cities in the U.S.,” Javier Quiñones, the head of Ikea’s U.S. retail operations, said in a statement. “We are passionate about life at home and energized by the opportunity to collaborate with New Yorkers to create a new experience that is both easy to access and shop.”
Ikea will replace anchor store Sears in Rego Center, which closed in 2017 after two decades in the neighborhood when the outpost was deemed “unprofitable,” DNAinfo reported.
Robert Minutoli of Urban Edge Properties represented the landlord in the deal while CBRE (CBRE) handled it for Ikea. Spokeswomen for CBRE and Urban Edge declined to comment.
