Politics & Government

Partners HealthCare Coming to Former IKEA Site

More details about the first major office tenant coming to Assembly Row.

After Thursday's news that Parters HealthCare would be the first major office tenant in Assembly Row, the city of Somerville has announced some more information about the deal.

Partners HealthCare, the largest private employer in Massachusetts, according to the announcement, will be building on the site formerly owned by IKEA—the same plot of land that played host to Cavalia's "Odysseo" over the summer.

Partners is bringing about 4,500 employees to Assembly Square—consolidating them from 14 existing administrative offices around Greater Boston—and they'll be moving in by late 2016, the announcement says.

It points out that Partners HealthCare is a tax-exempt non-profit organization, but "[it] has agreed to make municipal services contributions to the city that are still being negotiated but will eventually total more than the tax payments IKEA would have made."

Partners will be moving into two buildings built by Federal Realty Investment Trust, the developers of Assembly Row. Those buildings will constitute 700,000 square feet of office space that Partners will own, and FRIT will own 150,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Again, that's according to the city's announcement.

It says the initial 4,500 employees will work in administrative support functions, but a third phase of the buildout could include research and development space.

The announcement says: "Assembly Square appealed to Partners due to the Orange Line access created by the coming Assembly Square T-stop, the close proximity to Boston and the opportunity to build to their specifications."


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