IKEA Expected to Extend Building Permits Today

Mayor Joseph Curtatone, speaking yesterday before a budget presentation, said he had talked, earlier in the day, to representatives from IKEA, a large Swedish furniture store that has had on-again, off-again plans to build a store in Assembly Square.

According to Curtatone, IKEA planned to file for extensions to existing building permits today.

The IKEA store, which would be the second in Massachusetts—there is an existing IKEA in Stoughton—was expected to open this year, but in late 2010, .

It made that decision despite the fact it had already acquired building permits, which cost the company around $600,000, according to the mayor.

IKEA has long been considered an important part of commercial development plans for Assembly Square, and its skittishness about proceeding with the Somerville store left a big question mark over those plans.

The Swedish firm originally bought land in Assembly Square in 1999, and Curtatone estimated—he emphasized the word "estimating"—it has spent over $30 million, so far, on the project.

The mayor said Somerville's decision, in May, to issue a $25 million bond to cover infrastructure needs in Assembly Square has jumpstarted commercial development there. At the very least, it seems to have kept IKEA interested.