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March 30, 2004
CURTATONE DISCUSSES FUTURE OF SOMERVILLE STORE WITH IKEA REPRESENTATIVES
Despite project delays, IKEA reaffirms commitment to pursue
development rights at Assembly Square site
SOMERVILLE – Mayor Joseph Curtatone today announced he recently met
with IKEA North America officials at the company’s offices outside
Philadelphia. In the meeting, IKEA representatives indicated that their intent
remains to build a store and mixed-use development at its site in Assembly
Square in Somerville.
“I wanted IKEA to know we were committed to moving Assembly Square
forward and would do everything we could to make the site work for them,”
said Curtatone. “I made sure that message was delivered, and IKEA seemed
encouraged about our progress and the prospects for development here.”
IKEA originally bought the land at Assembly Square in 1999. The company
since has received zoning clearance from the city and all of its state permits,
but its plans for the store have been tied up in litigation with Mystic View
Task Force. One lawsuit was recently dismissed but another is pending.
Curtatone said he anticipated IKEA would win its final appeal and he hoped it
could begin building within the year.
The IKEA project will involve the construction of a 280,000 square foot IKEA
building, incorporating the home furnishings store, Swedish restaurant,
specialty foodmarket and administrative offices. In addition, the project will
feature more than 250,000 square feet of mixed-use, located in two office
buildings with ground-level retail stores and restaurants as well as a free-
standing restaurant on the 16.6-acre site along the Mystic River.
Under the plan, IKEA also will be helping create a nearly 5-acre, public
waterfront park along the Mystic River by redesigning and enhancing the
existing MDC Park and contributing three acres of its own land to the park.
The public open space will feature extensive pedestrian and bicycle paths
and public plazas, all of which will help reconnect Somerville to its
waterfront.
“IKEA already has invested more than 4½ years of time and millions of
dollars in Assembly Square,” stated IKEA Real Estate Manager Pat
Smith. “IKEA always has considered Massachusetts a two-store market and
we look forward to opening one of those stores in Somerville.” (IKEA also is
pursuing plans for another store 35 miles south of Somerville in the Town of
Stoughton, Massachusetts.)
“The Somerville project,” Smith continued, “will enhance the quality of life of
Somerville residents by allowing for a beautiful public park and affording them
access to many amenities along their waterfront. IKEA will also contribute to
the redevelopment of Assembly Square by investing in the shared vision of
sustainable mixed-use development, expanding open space, creating
excellent jobs, and by joining in the effort to develop an Orange Line MBTA
stop in the area.”
The IKEA Somerville store is considered critical to jumpstarting development
at Assembly Square, providing the needed economic activity to fuel other
commercial growth on the new Main Street that would be adjacent to the
property.
“The tremendous flow of customers and employees to the area would provide
a ready-made client base for the restaurants and other retailers we envision
for Main Street,” said Curtatone. “Those establishments will, in turn, draw
other business and residential tenants to the area.”
“We badly need the jobs and the tax revenue for the city,” Curtatone
added. “With the state still losing jobs and local aid still being cut, we can ill
afford to wait.”
IKEA will employ approximately 400 people in its store and estimates that
the other offices, retail stores, and restaurants will create an additional 800 to
1,000 jobs. The IKEA store alone will generate an estimated $1.6 million in
annual local tax revenue and the mixed-use will contribute another $700,000
in tax receipts for the city.
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