Don
Briggs, Senior Vice-President of Federal Realty Investment Trust, was
pleased with the press conference, saying, "This is a testament to the
true power of the public-private partnership where multi levels of the
government can come together with a private developer to promote
economic development." Thousands of jobs are estimated to crop up from
the development of Assembly Square. 8,000 temporary jobs and 4,000
permanent jobs will be created when this project soon gets underway. In
the next fifteen years it will translate to 18,000 temporary jobs and
20,000 permanent jobs created from face-lifting Assembly Square, an
area that now stands dormant and fenced off; places like Good Times
Emporium, Boston Paintball, and Planet Fitness have all disappeared.
With this new plan, almost twenty acres are set to be retail space
-restaurants, stores, possibly a movie theater. The only retail store
that has made a tentative agreement as yet to move into Assembly Square
is IKEA, which is to be opened, if all goes as planned, in 2011. A
little over forty acres are allocated for office space. There is a
proposed 200-room hotel and 2,100 housing units are being constructed.

The
money to start the grand-scale redevelopment of Assembly Square is from
federal stimulus funds, and so-called I-Cubed Funding – Infrastructure
Investment Incentive Program – which are state monies that are
allocated to go to programs that will "result in new jobs and tax
revenue for the Commonwealth" as the official state website declares.
It is thought that the retail and office space will dramatically
heighten property values which will benefit all in Massachusetts. " [I
have] no doubt whatsoever that this area will become prime
real-estate," remarked Representative Capuano during the short press
conference. Capuano goes on to say, "I don't want to come to anymore
groundbreakings; I want to come to some ribbon-cuttings." Mayor
Curtatone is thrilled with this project, telling The Somerville News
that "Assembly's moving forward…we'll get thousands of new jobs and
tens of millions of dollars in new tax revenue." In all, Somerville is
set to receive a total of $65 million for this undertaking.

The
Mystic View Task Force, a community organization, has tried for over a
decade to put something in Assembly Square to spur economic growth.
Bill Shelton, who chairs this organization, is happy to see that
something is being put in the square after eleven years, saying the
plan revealed today is not perfect, "…but it will make things a lot
better than they are now."