Ikea to Build Large Store Near South Coast Plaza

Ikea plans to build one of its largest West Coast home furnishing stores in Costa Mesa, while closing its store at the Tustin Marketplace, company officials said Tuesday.

The furniture retailing giant will build a 300,000-square-foot store on a vacant 20-acre site that Ikea will buy from South Coast Plaza owner C.J. Segerstrom & Sons. The parcel is between the San Diego Freeway and South Coast Drive, just east of Harbor Boulevard.

Financial details of the land purchase were not disclosed.

The new store, which is expected to open in early 2001, should help lure home furnishings purchasers to the area, something Segerstrom is trying to do at the former Crystal Court section of South Coast Plaza.

A large Macy’s home furnishings store and a Crate & Barrel Furniture are scheduled to open there by the end of next year. Before the Crate & Barrel decision was announced in January, some observers had speculated that Ikea might move into Crystal Court.

Home furnishings is “a new emphasis” for that section of South Coast Plaza, Segerstrom spokesman Paul Freeman said. The new Ikea store, about 1 1/2 miles away, “is a complement to that, no question,” he said.

Ikea’s new store will be double the size of the Tustin store, and the Costa Mesa site is more central to Orange County and closer to the beach communities, said Michael McDonald, president of Ikea Properties. The store will feature a 300-seat restaurant.

“With the [Tustin] store we have today, it’s really impossible to expand it to what we really want to do,” he said. “And with South Coast Plaza being so successful, hopefully that will spill over to us.”

McDonald said the company’s lease at the Tustin location runs until 2004. He said he expects Ikea to remain there for at least two years--the time it will take to get city approvals for the Costa Mesa site and to build the store along the freeway. The store will face the freeway.

Employees at the Tustin store are expected to be transferred to the new location, and up to 100 new employees could be added, he said.

The new Ikea site is part of an 86-acre development being planned by Segerstrom on property known as Home Ranch, the Segerstroms’ initial homestead. The rest of the land, which is south of Sunflower Avenue and west of Fairview Road, would be used for office buildings in what Freeman describes as “an urban commercial center.”

It is not known yet whether any more of the land will be sold, Freeman said.

McDonald said the Costa Mesa store and a new store being built in the San Francisco area will be the biggest Ikea stores on the West Coast.

Tustin Marketplace officials said Tuesday that they had not been notified of Ikea’s plans.

“We’ve heard rumors but we haven’t heard anything definite at all about them moving,” said Karol Reedy, general manager of the shopping center.

The 86-acre development must still gain approval from the city of Costa Mesa, which last month agreed to consider a general plan amendment and zone changes.

Another issue is increased traffic and freeway access to the store.

Freeman said the Segerstrom company is willing to finance an access road from the freeway that would alleviate most of the added traffic the project might bring. He also said much of Ikea’s traffic will occur during “off-peak” hours such as weekends, when most people do their furniture shopping.

Environmental documents should be ready in a few months, and Segerstrom is hoping the City Council will consider its plan by the end of the year, Freeman said.

The Ikea store should generate $800,000 to $1 million in sales tax revenue for Costa Mesa, he said.