Demolition crews clear the way for new IKEA

The first of more than a dozen buildings on the site of the future IKEA store came crashing down in a matter of minutes Thursday morning, a milestone that comes more than a year after the project was approved.

Nineteen buildings are being torn down to make way for a new 456,000-square-foot store, which will be the Swedish retailer’s largest in the United States when it opens in spring 2017. It will be roughly 6,000 square feet larger than the current record-holder in Schaumburg, Ill., which opened in 1998, said Joseph Roth, director of public affairs for the company.

Officials from IKEA — all wearing yellow shirts — and from the city — most wearing business suits — donned white hard hats and gathered on a patch of asphalt in the 800 block of South San Fernando Boulevard to witness the destruction of the steel warehouse building, previously used by Western Studio Services for prop storage and, long ago, home to Menasco Aerospace.

Some elected officials even participated in the demolition, which began around 10:30 a.m., with Burbank Mayor David Gordon behind the controls of a tracked excavator.

“Mayor Gordon got to take the first bite of the apple, so to speak,” Roth said, as Vice Mayor Bob Frutos took his turn behind the controls.

With a jaw-like bucket at the end of its jointed arm, the machine battered, chomped and dragged sheet metal walls, while nearby workers sprayed water on the structure to keep the dust and debris down. The morning’s demolition was the first physical work on the project, Roth said, calling it “real progress.”

“There’s much work to do, but it took a lot of work to get here,” he added.

The City Council approved the project last March, but in April the nonprofit Citizens Advocating Rational Development sued Burbank and IKEA, claiming the city had not prepared an adequate environmental-impact report for the massive expansion. The group agreed to dismiss its suit following a settlement in September.

While Councilman Jess Talamantes politely declined his turn at the controls of the excavator, he said he was amazed at how quickly the building came down.

“They take so long to put up, and see how fast they come down — unbelievable,” Talamantes said after the walls caved and the roof sagged to the ground with a metallic crunch at around 10:50 a.m.

It could take four to six weeks to tear down all 19 buildings on the 22-acre site and another few months to prepare the property for a ground-breaking, which Roth said is slated for September or October.

The steel will be recycled. Asphalt, concrete and brick will be pulverized and reused — though perhaps not at the Burbank site — he said.

The existing 242,000-square-foot store at Burbank Town Center, 600 N San Fernando Blvd., which was the first IKEA in California when it opened in 1990, will remain open until the new one is completed.

Jim O’Neil, executive vice president of Crown Realty and Development Inc. of Irvine, which will redevelop the current IKEA site, said there are no definite plans for it yet, but the firm is exploring various options.

The current Burbank store performs well, Roth said, but the new store is needed to provide better parking and access, and to allow for a larger stock of the home furnishing giant’s more than 10,000 items.

Gordon, who was wearing a yellow shirt and yellow-and-blue striped tie — IKEA’s signature colors — said the new store will be an asset to the community.

“On the one hand, it looks like a demolition,” Gordon said. “On the other hand, you might say a rebirth.”