Capuano on Assembly Square: ‘Finally!’
By George P. Hassett

An agreement between the Mystic View Task Force and developers could end a decade-old dispute and allow construction of an Ikea furniture store and a grand mixed-use project consisting of office space, a hotel and more than 3,000,000 square feet of residential space in Assembly Square.
  ‚ÄúThere‚Äôs only one word to describe today‚Äôs news,‚Äù said Congressman Michael E. Capuano, D-Somerville. ‚ÄúFinally!‚Äù

  The accord will put an end to all lawsuits by the Mystic View Task Force against the city, developer Federal Realty and Swedish home furnishing retailer Ikea. Federal and Ikea agreed to invest $15 million to help build an Orange Line MBTA station between Sullivan Square and Wellington to alleviate Mystic View‚Äôs traffic concerns.
  Mystic View, a grassroots group of local activists, advocated for a transit based development for years and opposed previous projects they felt would not address the city‚Äôs needs. One plan, approved by the city‚Äôs Planning Board but later overturned in court, called for nothing but a ‚Äúsuper‚Äù Home Depot and a small office building.
   Federal Realty President Don Briggs said the $15 million contribution from Federal and Ikea matches a $25 million earmark from the federal government secured by Capuano.
   ‚ÄúThis clears the way for Congressman‚Äôs Capuano earmarked money to become appropriated and released,‚Äù he said.
   Federal Realty will contribute $150,000 to the city for water-access improvements, provide bike and pedestrian connections from the site to Ten Hills, East Somerville, and Draw 7 Park, and pay for a  $50,000 for a study by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health on the health impacts of traffic in the area.
   Briggs said Federal Realty could break ground in 2009 and the project would be built in phases over eight to 10 years.
    Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone said he was ecstatic intense development at Assembly Square could finally move forward.
   ‚ÄúI‚Äôm thrilled,‚Äù he said. ‚Äúthis was a huge milestone and accomplishment for Somerville.‚Äù
    Curtatone said negotiations picked up when the city added Douglas Foy, the state‚Äôs former head of development, as a volunteer advisor for local projects like Assembly Square. Curtatone and his administration though played no role in the negotiations, said Foy‚Äôs collaborator Anne Tate.
   ‚ÄúIt was a different kind of leadership,‚Äù she said. ‚ÄúHis leadership was to trust the process. He wasn‚Äôt involved in the negotiations.‚Äù
    Tate said Federal Realty and Mystic View were able to work together despite years of acrimony between nearly every party involved at Assembly Square because Federal Realty was a new developer without a history of strife in the city.
   ‚ÄúFederal didn‚Äôt carry any history with them into the negotiations so the process could be clean. And Mystic View saw Joe‚Äôs invitation to Doug Foy as a symbol of opportunity.
   Tate said the market for office space is opening and could be on the upswing in the next 10 years and Mystic View and Federal Realty want to catch the anticipated surge. Foy said Assembly Square is ‚Äúthe most exciting transit-oriented development certainly in New England, possibly in the entire country.‚Äù 
   Mystic View member Wig Zamore helped mold today‚Äôs vision of Assembly Square, fending off past proposals such as the one that would leave the 145 acre site with nothing but an oversized Home Depot. Tuesday he said he did not know what he was going to do now that an agreement has been reached.
   ‚ÄúI‚Äôm thinking about learning how to play pool,‚Äù he said.