Somerville's only Target store just got the green light to tear down a wall and add a full-service grocery section inside the existing store. The city's Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously, 5-0, on November 4 to approve an expansion into vacant space next door, with the grocery section, including fresh produce, due to open in 2027.
The plan, first proposed in 2024, will see Target expand its store at 180 Somerville Ave. into an adjacent vacant building, according to reporting by Cambridge Somerville Independent, whose reporter Marc Levy covered the zoning board's decision. That outlet put the existing Somerville Target's floor area at 92,000 square feet and the adjacent vacant space at 34,000 square feet, for a combined floor area of close to 130,000 square feet once the expansion is complete. Target needed a Zoning Board of Appeals special permit for interior shelving and equipment fit-out because Somerville's zoning code applies extra scrutiny to uses larger than 10,000 square feet.
Those figures differ somewhat from an earlier account. As of September 8, Banker & Tradesman reported Target was seeking to expand by 40,000 square feet and described the existing store as 94,000 square feet. The publication also reported that the vacant space Target is moving into is currently leased to Advanced Auto, according to application materials, and that the property itself is a 7-acre site with a 126,747-square-foot retail building completed in 1970 that Target Corp. acquired in 2007 for $10 million.
Why the Grocery Section Is New
Target had long operated under a grocery restriction from Stop & Shop, according to the Independent's reporting, which limited what the Somerville store could sell. Under the new plan, the existing Target space will continue to handle sales of non-grocery goods, while the newly added space will be used for food. Target development manager Aaron Hemquist is named in connection with the project, and the company has said the expansion will provide a full grocery assortment, including fresh produce.
A City of Somerville neighborhood meeting notice for the project described the work as an interior retrofit that would expand Target into adjacent vacant commercial space, and specified that no expansion of the building footprint was proposed, according to the City of Somerville. The expansion is also expected to reduce truck trips to the site. Target had been using a remote storage area served by small trucks making multiple trips daily, and the redesign is intended to cut down on that traffic by expanding on-site space.
Parking Lot and Traffic Changes
The project includes a reworked parking lot, which will be repaved and restriped perpendicular to the building front. Seth Anderson, per Kimley-Horn, said the perpendicular layout would be safer and easier for customers to navigate. Target's drive-up stalls will be relocated to the west side of the parking lot, and the lot will gain 40 trees and additional landscaping islands. Company traffic studies found that traffic impacts from the expanded store were not significant.
Closing a Grocery Gap in the Neighborhood
For nearby residents, the addition of fresh produce fills a real gap. The nearest full grocery stores — Market Basket in Union Square and the Star Market on McGrath Highway in Inner Belt — are more than half a mile from the Target site. Robert Schofield, who lives on Knowlton Street in East Somerville, welcomed the expansion and the new grocery option.
The push for more grocery access comes as the city has struggled with retail vacancies more broadly. A 2025 report found that Somerville's existing ordinance addressing commercial vacancies had been ineffective, according to Banker & Tradesman's reporting, noting that only seven property owners submitted the required registration with the city in the six years after the ordinance was established. Separately, Somerville's Office of Food Access and Healthy Communities has said it completed a 2026 Community Food Assessment in July, intended in part to inform funding allocation and improve existing initiatives, per the City of Somerville.
A Growing Footprint Around Somerville
The Somerville Target is the company's only store in the city, but it's far from the only Target in the area. The Minnesota-founded retailer, established in 1962, also has stores in Cambridge's Porter Square and Central Square, as well as on Salem Street in Medford. Nationally, Target operates more than 2,000 stores in the United States, including 51 across Massachusetts.
