Poll: Will you shop the Tampa IKEA store?

By MARY SHEDDEN, The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Swedish fish, furniture and frugality are on their way, bringing the downtown Tampa area its first major retailer in years.

Scandinavian retailer Ikea announced plans Monday to build a 353,000-square-foot retail location at the Tampa International Center, on Adamo Drive and 22nd Street near Ybor City.

Motorists won’t see the iconic blue and yellow store rising along the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway unless the city council approves a plan that Mayor Pam Iorio said includes a $1.4 million developer fee for road improvements.

“We will accomplish so much with this one project,” said Iorio, an advocate of downtown residential and retail development. “It will attract people from throughout the region.”

If all goes according to plan, construction could start next year. The proposed opening: summer 2009. It would make Tampa the third Florida location of the quirky retailer best known for sleek, modern and affordable furniture that buyers often must assemble themselves.

Spring Hill resident Pattie Miller said she’s built and rebuilt an Ikea desk she bought in Virginia in 1990 for less than $150.

“I always wished they were closer,” she said Monday.

Ikea has stores in Orlando and Sunrise under construction. They are expected to open later this year with the company’s estimated 10,000 products: from sofas and kitchen cabinets to inexpensive mugs, housewares, and Scandinavian foods such as specialty candies.

Until then, the estimated 100,000 active Tampa Bay area Ikea shoppers will have to rely on the Internet or a road trip to the closest store - in Atlanta.

Store To Echo Atlanta’s
Opened in 2005, the 366,000-square-foot downtown Atlanta store is similar to the proposed Tampa site in that it serves as an anchor for an area of mixed retail and residential development.

The 29-acre Tampa location would include 1,700 parking spaces and a 300-seat restaurant. Ikea spokesman Joseph Roth said the Tampa store is part of the company’s plans to add three to five stores a year in the United States through 2010.

Ikea director of real estate David Ieomolo said a central Tampa location attracted more potential shoppers than a rumored location in Brandon. He said Brandon’s market would have overlapped with the new Orlando location.

Ikea’s effect on downtown and Ybor City could be significant, physically and economically. It’s the first proposed major retailer in downtown since the Maas Brothers department store closed in 1991.

The massive warehouse-like store would be nearly 100,000 square feet larger than a typical Wal-Mart Supercenter. Ikea’s business model aims to attract shoppers from up to 60 miles away.

“Think of the numbers [of people] and the wealth within a 60-mile radius and it’s going to come to this market,” said Michael Chen, the city’s director of urban development.

No Specific Incentives Offered
Coincidentally, the location proposed for Ikea was once rumored to become a Wal-Mart when the Panattoni Development Co.paid $11.2 million for the 30-acre site in 2005. Developers and Ikea officials declined to disclose terms of Monday’s deal.

Iorio said no specific tax incentives have been offered to Ikea, and its location falls outside any special enterprise zones that would have offered additional tax relief.

Developers also will be required to pay $1.4 million in transportation impact fees, money Iorio said will be used directly to improve roads in and around the Ikea site. The site’s eastern border on 22nd Street currently serves as the main connector between the expressway and Interstate 4.

Will Ander, a retail industry consultant in Chicago, said Ikea nibbles away business from retailers as varied as Wal-Mart, Pottery Barn and Rooms to Go.

Early U.S. stores struggled with costs and the need to adapt their products to the American public, Ander said. The formula, including streamlined distribution systems, now works well if enough people stop in the stores.

“They need lots of traffic to make it work,” he said.

Researchers Melanie Coon and Catherine Hammer contributed to this report. Reporter Mary Shedden can be reached at mshedden@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7365.

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