Ikea is opening on June 18th after years of protests from local Red Hook residents. But now that it’s a reality, it will be interesting to see how the neighborhood likes its new neighbor.
According to Jeanine Ramirez, the Brooklyn reporter for NY 1, Craig Hammerman and others seem to think that Ikea is a good neighbor and doing things right by Red Hook.
It remains to be seen whether Ikea is indeed a positive thing for Red Hook and the surrounding neighborhoods of Brooklyn.
But it can’t be denied that Ikea has done (or was forced to doP quite a few things right even if the big blue and yellow box store is a bit glaring contextually in that historic area.
On a positive note, the store offered first choice of jobs to people in the community and they are offering full benefits even for part-time employees.
Now that’s cool.
No doubt the Red Hook Ikea, the first Ikea in New York City, has great views of the water, the New York skyline and the Statue of Liberty.
Sitting on 22 acres in the Erie Basin, the big box Swedish store turned 6 of its acres into a public waterfront esplanade. I am eager to see if this effort to win over the community pays off. It sure sounds nice.
Craig Hammerman of Community Board 6 seems to be very positive about the new Ikea.
"There were certain conditions that the community board had imposed
on its land use review and IKEA has lived up to all of the conditions," Hammerman told NY 1.
Ikea helped pay for turning lanes on Hamilton Avenue to ease the
traffic flow in and out of Red Hook. Shuttle buses will pick up
customers at nearby subway stations, water taxi service will run to and
from Manhattan’s Pier 11, two city bus lines are extending their routes
to the store and rental Zipcars will be on-site.IKEA widened and paved the street in front of the store, upsetting
some residents who wanted to keep the old stone road that was here. So,
designers included the stones in the park landscape. The store also
incorporated cranes to preserve the site’s maritime history.
Sounds like Ikea is adding public transportation (i.e. shuttle buses, extended lines for the existing buses, and water taxi service) to a neighborhood sorely in need of public transportation. Whether these modification will just be for customers or for the community as a whole remains to be seen.
June 18th is just a few weeks away. Everyone wants to see how this store fits into the life of this very special Brooklyn community and whether it is a benefit to the place or just a drain on the community’s resources.