Exterior of warehouse

STATEN ISLAND—Already a major presence in the New York City region's retail scene, Ikea will now become one in the region's industrial sector. The Swedish home furnishings giant on Thursday said it had signed a lease for 975,000 square feet of warehouse space at Matrix Global Logistics Park in Staten Island's Bloomfield neighborhood. It's expected to open late this year.

“As we expand across the country and grow our online presence, we want to ensure we have sufficient warehouse capacity to support the efficient and timely delivery and shipment of products to our customers,” says Lars Petersson, Ikea US president. “Our goal is to increase accessibility to IKEA products, and a new fulfillment center in Staten Island will help us meet the home furnishing needs of our customers in the New York metropolitan area.”

GlobeSt.com reported this past September that Amazon had signed a lease for 855,000 square feet at the Staten Island logistics park, a project of Cranbury, NJ-based Matrix Development Group; it's also due to become operational this year. The Ikea fulfillment center there—an existing facility which Matrix reportedly built on spec—will focus on delivering items to customers who order products online or purchase larger items at an Ikea brick-and-mortar store.

Ikea operates 47 US stores, which are served by seven regional distribution centers. The closest to the New York region currently is a facility in Westampton, NJ, near Philadelphia. Within the New York tristate region, Ikea operates stores in Brooklyn, the Long Island community of Hicksville, NY and Elizabeth and Paramus, NJ.

The site will be operated by CEVA Logistics and the project will create approximately 200 jobs, Ikea said Thursday. CEVA is a global leader in supply chain operations that is currently working with Ikea at customer distribution centers in the UK.

SI Live.com reported Thursday that Matrix was about to embark on construction of another spec warehouse at the site. It will measure 450,000 square feet. “”We are talking to a number of different potential users for this building,” Matrix president Joseph Taylor told SI Live.com.

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.

Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny is managing editor of Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. He has been reporting on business since 1988 and on commercial real estate since 2007. He is based at ALM Real Estate Media Group's offices in New York City.