Furniture Giant Ikea Considers Three South Bay Sites : Retail: The outlet would employ up to 300 people. City officials and developers are excited about the prospects.

Ikea, the world’s largest furniture retailer, has been combing the South Bay in search of a site for a store that it hopes to open in the summer of 1992.

Ikea has pinpointed possible locations in Carson, Gardena and the Harbor Gateway area of Los Angeles, all of them close to the intersection of the 110, 405 and 91 freeways. Ikea, which opened its first West Coast store in Burbank in November, hopes to choose a South Bay site in the next two months, company officials said.

“The problem is, we’re looking for quite a lot of space,” said Rene Hausler, president of Ikea U.S. West, the Torrance-based division of Ikea U.S. Inc.

The South Bay store would contain 200,000 square feet of retail and warehouse space--roughly the size of four football fields--and parking for 1,000 cars, Hausler said. It would employ 280 to 300 people, most of them full time, and would be the third of four Ikea stores planned for Southern California, he said.

The prospect of drawing the Swedish-based retailer to the South Bay--along with its upscale image and shoppers--is tantalizing some city officials and developers.

“My Lord, what it would mean is tremendous sales tax revenue that we definitely need,” Carson City Councilwoman Sylvia Muise said. “(Ikea) is huge, they’re impressive, they’re well-designed. I think they offer a good product.”

Ikea is “a phenomenal anchor,” said Fred Bruning, chief of staff and partner with the Alexander Haagen Co., which developed the mall where Ikea’s Burbank store is located and which has discussed a venture with Ikea in Carson.

Ikea, which features contemporary, European-style home furnishings, has 88 stores in 22 countries, including five East Coast stores. Its trademarks include off-beat advertising, a yellow-and-blue color scheme and child play areas.

The Burbank store opened Nov. 7 amid a flurry of advertising and media attention. It attracted 146,000 customers during its first six days of operation, store officials reported. That is “a huge draw,” said Keith Foxe, a spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Centers in New York City. By contrast, a new Minneapolis-area shopping mall in the same size category drew 150,000 people for its grand opening weekend, the council reported.

Construction on a second California Ikea store is to begin in the next few months in Fontana, Hausler said. After opening a South Bay store, Ikea plans a fourth store in Orange County, possibly in the Tustin-Irvine area, he said.

Hausler said the recent economic downturn and sagging Christmas sales figures at many Southern California retail stores have not affected Ikea’s expansion plans.

“We think the time just now isn’t so bad that we’d reconsider and not open stores,” he said. “This is such a big and strong retail market here.”

Ikea U.S. West would move its headquarters out of Torrance to the new South Bay store, which it plans to own rather than rent, he said.

Of the three possible South Bay sites, Hausler said, “Every one has its own advantages and its own problems.”

Gardena Assistant City Manager Mitch Lansdell said, “I really think it comes down to who can move the quickest and which site can be put in the revenue stream the quickest.”

The need for quick action might disqualify the Carson site, part of a 76-acre parcel bounded by Torrance Boulevard on the north, Main Street on the east, Figueroa Street on the west and several small streets on the south. Formerly the site of the Golden Eagle oil refinery, the property contains oil and lead contamination, and benzene and solvents have been found in the ground water, according to Allan Hirsch, spokesman for the state Department of Health Services.

State health laws require the site to be cleaned up before construction begins. Hirsch said the state hopes an investigation and cleanup feasibility study will be finished during 1991, followed by a cleanup plan, but he could not say when the work would be completed. Golden Eagle, which is conducting the work under state review, “really controls the pace of the investigation,” he said.

Unless the process is completed in a timely fashion, Ikea would choose another site, said the Haagen Co.’s Bruning. He said the Haagen Co. has discussed building an open-air mall on 40 acres of the Golden Eagle site and that the mall might include Ikea, two other anchor stores and 35 to 40 smaller shops.

If Ikea did not choose the Carson site, “It would make it much more difficult” for Haagen to develop the mall, Bruning said.

Another site under consideration by Ikea is the Honeywell property at Western Avenue and Artesia Boulevard in Gardena. Honeywell is moving its operations to San Diego, leaving vacant several buildings on the 16-acre industrial-zoned site, said Lansdell, the assistant city manager. The City Council would like to see commercial and retail development there, he said.

“Generally, there is significant interest in the property from at least four different purchasers,” said David Hasbrouck, executive vice president of Cushman & Wakefield Inc., the real estate firm handling the property. An agreement with a buyer on purchase terms might be reached within 30 days, Hasbrouck said.

Ikea is also considering a third site, the former Ascot Park Raceway on Vermont Avenue in Harbor Gateway. Andrex Development Co. of Los Angeles obtained a long-term lease for the 35-acre property last year and is searching for major tenants, Andrex President Howard Mann said. The company plans a project called South Bay Showcase, which Mann described as a promotional center, a type of retail complex with large discount stores often located near major freeway intersections. Possible tenants could include discount stores, major grocery or drug chains, restaurants and banks, Mann said.

No major tenants have been lined up yet, Mann said this week.

Price Club, the discount membership retailer, has talked to officials about the Carson and Gardena sites. No decisions have been made, said Nevel DeHart, vice president of real estate and development for Price Co. of San Diego, Price Club’s owner.

All three sites are near the Carson Mall, which has three department stores and 96 specialty shops. But Mark McGaughey, a partner with Carson Mall Partners, the mall’s owners, said he does not think Ikea or related new retail development would hurt business at the mall.

Ikea officials said they believe that a new South Bay store will not drain customers from their Burbank store. Nor would Ikea be hurt by building close to the Torrance outlet of Stor, Hausler said.

Stor Furnishings International Inc., based in the City of Industry, also has stores in Industry and Tustin and is planning a fourth store in Houston, Tex. The Torrance Stor at the Del Amo Fashion Center is 98,000 square feet, without warehouse space.

In a federal lawsuit, Ikea had accused Stor of stealing its ideas through unfair competition and copyright and trademark infringement. Stor agreed to several minor changes in a June, 1988, settlement, including not calling its products by certain Scandinavian names or using yellow or blue on the outsides of its stores. The Torrance store, where the entire exterior facade consists of blue enamel tile from a previous tenant, was exempted.

If Ikea comes to the South Bay, it would represent the first time the Swedish retailer has competed directly against Stor in the same area.

Richard Clayton, Stor chairman and chief executive officer, said he was reluctant to comment about Ikea’s South Bay expansion because he did not know of the specific plans for a site and type of store.