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Members of the city’s Tax Increment Financing Commission voted unanimously to approve the subsidy. The vote also backed a separate $5.1 million subsidy for a residential building planned for an area just west of the Ikea site.

The Swedish furniture retailer has yet to specify the cost of its ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ store, planned for the southwest corner of Forest Park and Vandeventer avenues, but a spokesman said it will exceed $100 million.

The TIF projects are part of a $167.7 million TIF city officials approved for the Cortex bioscience district in 2012. The district is split into 10 TIF areas that must be activated individually as the area develops.

TIF commissioners also voted Friday to back a subsidy of $4.2 million for a project to buy and demolish a steel processing facility at Sarah Street and Duncan Avenue. Parking is slated as an interim use but no firm redevelopment plan is ready.

But it’s full speed ahead on the Ikea project. Representatives of the Swedish retailer told TIF commissioners the company plans to buy the 20-acre site this spring and begin store construction this summer. Ikea expects to open the 380,000-square-foot-store by fall 2015. A portion of sales taxes the store generates would pay off TIF bonds issued to Ikea to buy the site and pay for utility relocations and other site preparation needs.

As Ikea said in December when announcing the project, the store will have two floors of retail space on piers over a parking level that, combined with surface parking, will hold 1,250 vehicles.

Reed Lyons, an Ikea real estate manager, said Friday the unusual design is necessary because the ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ store’s site is smaller than the 25 to 30 acres the company usually requires.

Approval by the TIF Commission sends the tax incentives to the ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ Board of Aldermen for consideration.

So far, Cortex has tapped TIF assistance for several projects, including conversion of a former telephone factory into science labs and a plaza on Boyle Avenue.

Commissioners approved the latest requests after lengthy questioning by residents who wanted assurances that Cortex projects meet city goals for minority and women participation in hiring and contracting on TIF projects of $1 million or more. The goals include 25 percent of labor hours performed by minorities and 5 percent by women.

Dennis Lower, president and chief executive of Cortex, told commissioners that the projects will meet the goals.