bpr20120723_3.mp3

After more than a decade of planning and millions of dollars of investment, last week IKEA announced its decision to nix its plans to build a store at Assembly Square in Somerville. The decision could hinder Somerville’s efforts to redevelop the huge expanse of empty industrial property near 93.

Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone told Boston Public Radio that IKEA's departure from the property could create better opportunities for the 12 acres of land the store would have sat upon.

"We were working around the IKEA project... removing a 350,000 square foot big box, opening up 12 acres of development... opens up so many better opportunities to enhance the site, create more jobs, and more tax revenues than IKEA would have ever brought to us," he said.  

Somerville neighborhood activist Ellin Reisner told BPR that she was not disappointed to see the big box store go. She hopes to see a project that would incorporate a mix of uses on the land and create a number of diverse jobs. 

"I'm very interested in seeing research and development... It will attract jobs in all categories, from highly educated to people doing office work, maintenance work, repair work. Somerville exports people to work. We don't have a surplus of jobs here, it's an opportunity for us," she said.