DUBLIN -- The blue and yellow colors of the Swedish flag have yet to grace Dublin in the form of IKEA. But the home decoration retail store is still coming to the city's burgeoning East side near the Hacienda Crossing shopping area, albeit in a smaller form than the Dublin City Council originally approved in the spring of 2004.

IKEA set its sights on the city a few years ago and purchased a 27.4-acre site owned by the Alameda County Surplus Property Authority. However, the site requires road construction, utility wiring, water and sewage hookups.

Our number one priority is to begin the off-site infrastructure improvements and off-site work, said Joseph Roth, IKEA spokesman. Once those are completed, well have a better time frame.

Roth said because the store is the third one in the Bay Area — after Emeryville and Palo Alto — the company decided to downgrade its original 317,000-square-foot store to one between 265,000 to 280,000 square feet.

The store, which will be elevated to accommodate parking on its first level, also is expected to include a restaurant.

The remaining acreage on the site will be constructed by Blake Hunt Ventures, Inc., a Danville-based real estate development firm. A nearly 140,000-square-foot complex is slated to include specialty, home furnishing and possibly apparel retailers and eateries.

Its going to be a collection of retail shops, stores and restaurants, said Jerry Hunt, firm president. We've had strong interest from a variety of quality retailers and operators.

Hunt said he anticipates the center opening in the first quarter of 2007.

Despite the projected deadline coming and going for IKEA, Roth said the company is committed to its Dublin location.

And city leaders, though acknowledging the West Sacramento store got ahead of the Valley by opening before Dublin's, are still counting on it.

Its all just business sense, but we know its coming, said Janet Lockhart, Dublin's mayor.

IKEA is expected to bring between 300 to 400 jobs to the area and healthy sales tax revenues — facts not lost on the council when it approved the project.

However, the proposal met with some fierce opposition from several residents, at one point becoming the subject of referendum petitions that ultimately failed because foes couldn't gather enough signatures.