SOMERVILLE (CBS) – Plans to build an IKEA in Somerville have been scrapped.

The city’s Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone announced Thursday that the furniture retailer sent him a letter informing him of the decision not to move forward on construction on the 12-acre site they own in Assembly Square.

IKEA intends to sell the property.

The July 19th letter from IKEA explained that the company had concluded “that the immediate needs of our Boston-area customers 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.”

IKEA had originally purchased riverfront property on the Assembly Square site in 1999. In 2009, the company completed a land swap with Federal Realty for a parcel behind the Somerville Home Depot.