Ikea Opens New New Jersey Store

Ikea International A/S (Helsingborg, Sweden) has opened its 17th store in the U.S., a 375,000-square-foot location in Paramus, N.J., on the site of a long-closed Alexander's department store.

It's the second Ikea store in New Jersey. The first opened in Elizabeth, N.J., in 1990.

The Paramus store is between 10 and 25 percent larger than the chain's average new stores, which have been between 300,000 and 350,000 square feet. It also offers a 2000-car garage.

The store is part of an expansion of the company's North American division calling for five new stores a year for 10 years.

The site had been dormant since the Alexander's store closed in 1989.

Ikea's lease, including an option to buy, covers not only the land under its store and the garage, but also the rest of the 30-acre site. This would not be the first time that the international furniture retailer would be acting as the developer of the property around a store. After it opened the Elizabeth store, it developed Elizabeth Center, which it shares with a Toys “R” Us store and an athletic center. Ikea is proposing to add 250,000 square feet to the 88-acre Elizabeth Center as well as a 500-room hotel and conference center.