Home furnishing retailer Ikea paid $46 million for the 22-acre Burbank site where it has begun demolition in preparation for constructing its largest U.S. store.

The Netherlands-based chain bought 13 parcels at 805 S. San Fernando Road adjacent to the 5 Freeway south of downtown Burbank. The long-planned portfolio sale had been in the works for more than two years and closed in first quarter, according to real estate data provider CoStar Group Inc.

The parcels were acquired from Crown Realty and Development Inc., an Irvine real estate investor that also owns the Burbank Town Center. The sale takes nearly 380,000-square-feet of industrial space off the market in Burbank.

IKEA is razing 19 buildings on the property and plans to build a 470,000-square-foot store there starting later this year. The new store, expected to open in spring 2017, will replace the home furnishing retailer’s existing 242,000-square-foot outlet less than a mile away near the Town Center mall. The current store will remain in operation until the new store opens, likely in spring 2017.

One of the 15 companies that had operated on the property, Vision Scenery Corp., moved its business fabricating sets for the entertainment industry from Burbank to Sylmar. Last July, the company leased a 100,000-square-foot building at 12450 Foothill Blvd., doubling the size of its space.