Stoughton Store Will Remain State's Only IKEA After Company Scraps Plans for Somerville Site

IKEA announced on Thursday that it has decided to forgo plans to build a store in Somerville's Assembly Square, , which means the will remain the company's only location in Massachusetts for the foreseeable future.

The Swedish furniture store giant opened in Stoughton in November of 2005.

The high performance of the Stoughton IKEA is one of the reasons the company decided not to build a second location in Metro Boston, according to a letter IKEA sent to Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone.

"IKEA Stoughton has surpassed our expectations for attracting customers from throughout the region," Doug Greenholz, IKEA's U.S. Real Estate Manager, wrote in the letter to Mayor Curtatone. "In fact, the [Stoughton] store's larger size and plenty of parking have proven to serve our needs very well."

The letter continued, "Based on the regional draw of IKEA, we have concluded that the immediate needs of our Boston-area customers currently are being served effectively by the existing Stoughton store and that a second Boston-area location (including one in Somerville) is not needed for the foreseeable future."

The plans for an IKEA in Somerville actually predated the plans for an IKEA in Stoughton, but they never fully materialized.

IKEA began talks with the City of Somerville about building in Assembly Square nearly 15 years ago, the letter states. When the initial Somerville plans were stalled, IKEA opted to "pursue a complementary location to the south, in Stoughton," while still aiming to eventually build in Somerville with the vision of having two Boston area stores, according to the letter.

Now IKEA intends to sell its land in Assembly Square, the letter states.

IKEA currently has 38 stores in the United States, spread over 21 states, according to the company's website, but the Stoughton location is the only one in New England north of the New Haven, CT store.