TAMPA - It isn't just fans of European furniture and Swedish meatballs who are awaiting Ikea's opening. Other stores likely will ride on its coattails to the area east of downtown along Adamo Drive.

Ikea is expected to draw so many people from all over Central Florida that other retailers will sprout up around it. Already, a Denver-based furniture store, Furniture Row LLC, has purchased land next to the Ikea along North 26th Street.

Meanwhile, real estate brokers have placed calls to small industrial businesses near the new Ikea, hoping the businesses will be willing to sell, say owners of small businesses nearby. Those calls stopped with the recession.

It's hard to predict how much potential the Adamo Drive area has for retail.

"I do think it is inevitable, but it's not going to happen overnight," said Tim Wilmath, who directs valuations for the Hillsborough County property appraiser.

Elsewhere, Ikea has been a catalyst for development. In Tempe, Ariz., one developer tried to capitalize on a nearby Ikea by building a 240,000-square-foot shopping center focused on furniture.

"They're a superregional draw," said the project's developer, Adam Gilburne. "They draw all the way from Tucson; they draw from 100 miles away."

Furniture Row has a history of locating near the Swedish-based furniture chain. It has purchased land near Ikea's new store in Charlotte, N.C., and it opened a store in Salt Lake City near Ikea.

The company paid more than $4 million, or $22 a square foot, for land next to the Tampa Ikea. Wilmath said that's a price companies normally would pay to be near a mall.

Patrick Berman, a retail real estate broker for firm Cushman & Wakefield, said a discount store such as Sam's Club or Wal-Mart might want to build nearby because the Tampa Ikea is in a relatively low-income neighborhood.

Some local landowners are optimistic Ikea will boost property values in what is an industrial area of Tampa, although there's no sign that values have increased, Wilmath said.

At least one landowner laments the arrival of Ikea for the traffic it will bring. Phil Glassman, a Fort Lauderdale man who owns a few warehouse properties along Adamo Drive, worries his tenants will flee because of the traffic.

"The best place for Ikea is out in the farmland someplace," Glassman said.

Researcher Stephanie Pincus contributed to this report. Reporter Michael Sasso can be reached at (813) 259-7865.