Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE: FRT) and Swedish furniture and home accessories retailer, IKEA, recently completed a land swap at the site of Federal's Assembly on the Mystic redevelopment project in Somerville, MA (a Boston suburb). Under terms of the swap, Federal took on 16.6 acres of Mystic River waterfront property, while IKEA took on 11.9 acres closer to I-93.

Federal's vision for the 50-acre Assembly on the Mystic is an urban village including new public parks and open spaces; 2,100 residences; retail, dining and entertainment options (1.07M SF); office space (1.78M SF) and a MBTA Orange Line T stop, all of which could take 15 years to complete.

IKEA is already underway with infrastructure work for its 340,000-square-foot anchor store, which is projected to open in 2011. The store would be IKEA's second Boston-area store and the retailer's 38th in the U.S.

The first phase of the project plans for the opening of the IKEA store, a public park and restaurant situated along the waterfront, plus infrastructure improvements. The second phase, scheduled to start in the fall of next year, plans for 486 housing units; a 160-room hotel; 109,000 square feet of office space and 286,000 square feet of retail space, including a cinema; project to open in 2012.

This article appears in CoStar's Retail News Roundup: October 25-31, 2009
This week in the Retail Roundup, CoStar reports on expansions or new concepts at Wal-Mart and 77kids; closings, cutbacks, defaults, or bankruptcy news at Opus, Supervalu and Westgate Mall; acquisition, merger, loan, sale, or IPO activity at DDR and Macquarie, Weingarten and Jamestown, and Walgreens; new retail development news in NY, NC, MA, CT, and PA ; personnel or corporate announcements at Richard E. Jacobs Group and X Team; sustainability and green building news at JC Penney; and more.