AMC Movie Complex Coming to Somerville's Assembly Square

Somerville is getting a new, state-of-the-art movie complex.

, the company that's developing Assembly Square, has signed a lease with AMC Theatres to open a 12-screen movie complex in Assembly Row, according to an announcement from the real estate company.

AMC is the first major tenant announced for the development.

The movie complex will include digital projection, plush seating, premium sound, an IMAX auditorium and a MacGuffins bar and lounge area, the announcement says.

It will be part of a broader mixed-use development planned at Assembly Row that includes 2100 residential units, a 200-room hotel, 880,000 square feet of retail space, 1.75 million square feet of office and lab space and a new Orange Line MBTA stop.

Assembly Row is designed to look and feel like an urban neighborhood, with streets and city blocks lined with restaurants, stores and office space.

According to the announcement, construction on the on the new movie theater will begin this spring, and the theater will open with the first phase of Assembly Row, which will include four blocks, 575 residential units and 315,000 square feet of retail space. 

The announcement did not say when phase one would be complete, but Federal Realty's marketing director told The Tufts Daily it was expected to be complete in mid-2014.

Federal Realty Investment Trust announced in November it was for Assembly Row's retail space.

This will be AMC's second foray into Assembly Square. In 2007, AMC closed the Assembly Square Cinemas, which originally opened in 1981. The vacant old theatre is still there, boarded up, with weeds peeking through cracks in the empty parking lot.