John Martinez may be one of the happiest men in Brooklyn right now. He is part of what is bound to be a cottage industry: putting together Ikea furniture for those who can’t or won’t cope with the sometimes maddening assembly process. “‘We deliver it. We put it together. We make people happy,’ chirped Martinez, […]

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There was an abundance of herring, salmon and other fish–not mention a lot of dessert–at yesterday’s media preview of the new Ikea on Beard Street, which will open at 9AM on June 18. The store will be Ikea’s 35th in the U.S. and the fifth in the tri-state area. Store Manager Mike Baker focused on […]

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The Red Hook Ikea won’t even be open for another 17 days, but we have our first Ikea Missed Connection to share as our Sunday Brooklyn Missed Connection of the week. It involves lust among the workers setting up the store. Here is is: We work in the new, big blue and yellow building in […]

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Make sure to check out Ed Levine’s “Ikea Hack,” whose basic premise is that people in Manhattan and elsewhere can take advantage of some transportation supplements that will be coming with the opening of Ikea in Red Hook in a few weeks to check out the Ballfield Vendors. Ikea, of course, will have Water Taxi […]

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Given that one of the big selling points of the new Ikea in residents was the jobs it would make available for local residents, one of the huge questions is how many residents the store has hired. Jotham Sederstrom takes a stab at the subject in today’s Daily News. We say “stab” because Ikea’s policy […]

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Craig Hammerman, the district manager of Community Board 6, said that IKEA has been a good neighbor, listening and addressing concerns. “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,” said Hammerman.–NY1

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If you’ve ever wanted to camp out an Ikea store before it opens, your chance is coming next month. The Ikea Red Hook opens on June 18, and Racked and Amy’s New York Notebook lead us to their webpage about the big camp out opportunity: Customers can begin lining up at IKEA Brooklyn at 9:00 […]

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When Ikea opens on June 18 and New York Water Taxi begins offering free weekend service from Pier 11 in Manhattan to the new store, the new eco-friendly dock will replace service that had been going to the Van Brunt St. dock behind the Fairway. What service? Well, it’s been suspended since December. The dock […]

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The Red Hook Ikea will be opening at 9AM on June 18, which is significantly early than rumors which have been floating around for a while. Official word comes via Racked, per an announcement from Ikea. Store Manager Mike Baker is quoted as saying, “We made excellent progress on construction last year and so far […]

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Beard Street has been renowned over the years for the number of cars that have been stripped and torched. In fact, not long ago, we posted something from a GL reader about toasted cars there. There’s still some roasting going on, however. Jim Clark of the Look North/Inuit Art Gallery in Red Hook sent us […]

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Change is coming. A reader sent us an email yesterday afternoon with the subject line “B61 Shilling for Ikea” to let us know that the B61 no longer says that it runs to Van Brunt Street. Our reader wrote: Yesterday I noticed that the B61 now says “RED HOOK – IKEA TERMINAL” instead of VAN […]

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We got a tour of the huge Ikea site and store in Red Hook on Friday courtesy of Curbed and Racked and were able to walk the 6.5 acre site and get a look inside the blue-and-yellow structure that will work a dramatic change on the neighborhood. The waterfront promenade, which is close to a […]

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The huge Ikea property in Red Hook now has a lot of trees. They arrive by truck. “I saw the flatbed truck delivering some of these trees (or perhaps trees for another area on the site) the other day. It’s weird to watch nature being inserted. Note the pine trees in the background.”–Callalillie

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Is New York City Transit trying to get a sense of ridership on the B61 route, which terminates in Red Hook and is being extended to the new Ikea when it opens on Beard Street, or are they actually trying to gauge ridership in order to make independent service improvements? A reader emails to say: […]

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The ongoing mystery of what is happening on Beard Street in Red Hook has been solved: Signage indicates that it’s an Ikea. (If you are just tuning in to this program, which has been in progress for a number of years, just kidding. We realized this when the building started turning blue and yellow….) The […]

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The job of managing the massive Ikea in Red Hook has gone to a Canadian who has worked for the multinational retailer for 14 years, according to a press release issued yesterday, which notes that the massive store will open this summer (August has always been mentioned as the most likely date). Ikea is hiring […]

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Those who have mourned the demise of the paving stones torn out of Beard Street in Red Hook to make way for a smooth, paved street that can handle Ikea traffic can stop: the paving stones are back. They are not on the street, but rather on the sidewalk, alternating with spaces where trees will […]

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We stopped and stared when we were taking photos on Beard Street and realized that a stoplight was being installed in front of what will be an entrance to the new Ikea. We will admit that this is an insignificant thing to many people, but it is a rather symbolic thing to those that recall […]

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Ikea sent press releases out everywhere yesterday “announcing” that it is accepting applications from the general public. The release said that Ikea “has begun the general recruitment process for its 1st New York City store, set to open Summer 2008 in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook.” Ikea had previously announced that it would only […]

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Ikea has been taking applications from Red Hook residents for more than a week-and-a-half, having given them a three-week head start, but it sent out a release with the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce yesterday that it will start general hiring for the Red Hook store on February 4. Some of the publicizing of job opportunities […]

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The big lot next to the Red Hook Ikea is on the market. Actually, it has been for months, as these signs went up in November and we’ve had these pics on our hard drive forever. The property has an interesting history as people lived there for a while and it was also home to […]

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The Red Hook Ikea started taking applications yesterday from Red Hook residents for positions at the sprawling store that will open on Beard Street in August. There is some good news and some bad news for residents with limited job experience or training. We went through Ikea’s job listings yesterday and found that the big […]

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Although the opening of the massive Ikea store on Beard Street in Red Hook has been delayed until August, the retailer is starting to hire and is taking job applications from Red Hook residents as of January 14. The Red Hook applications can only be submitted online. (The company has already filled about 20 management […]

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The devpavingstoneification of Beard Street in Red Hook to make the drive smoother for the up to 50,000 a cars a week that will be coming to the neighborhood once Ikea opens next year, looks like its on schedule. Here’s a redone segment of the street, with new sidewalk and blacktop. Other cobblestone streets in […]

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The Red Hook Ikea, which is a hub of activity as it rushes toward an opening next year, has a bit of an issue with its fence. Given that we’re always game to point out a construction or demolition site that’s open to the public, we’d be remiss in not pointing out that the fence […]

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