"The footprint was too large," Sean Fitzgerald, the mayor's spokesperson, tells GlobeSt.com. "It had limited mixed-use development, but not enough." The Swedish furniture company's plan included a 220,000-sf store and a small retail outlet or restaurant on its 16 acres of land. Fitzgerald says that the mayor's office is looking for a footprint in the 150,000-sf range. "We'd still meet serious opposition from those opposed to big-box stores," he adds.
Fitzgerald emphasizes that the Cecil Plan, which the mayor commissioned to recommend how to develop Assembly Square, states that big-box stores can exist with mixed-use development but, "we can't have that large a footprint with no mixed use. We made that clear."
According to Marty Marston, public relations manager for the North American branch of Ikea, the company is in the process "of resubmitting another proposal."
Continue Reading for Free
Register and gain access to:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.