Hannaford Supermarkets has purchased the Orion Center, a retail property located off Route 1 in Scarborough that has sat vacant for more than two years.

Town officials were hoping this week that plans by the Scarborough-based supermarket chain to develop the property, which includes two buildings, would be similar to a previous proposal. That project called for six buildings to house banks, retail stores and restaurants, as well as a pedestrian walkway.

“We hope that Hannaford will stick with the original approved plans for the site. From a town planning standpoint, we just hope that the site doesn’t continue to be vacant,” said Scarborough Town Planner Dan Bacon.

But, with another Hannaford market located less than a mile away on Hannaford Drive in Oak Hill, it was unclear this week what plans the company has for the property. Hannaford spokeswoman Caren Epstein said Tuesday the company “is still formulating plans for development.”

The Belgium-based parent company of Hannaford Supermarkets, Delhaize Group, purchased the property Dec. 27 from Dead River Properties. Delhaize is a global food retailing leader, bringing in $17.3 billion in annual sales.

Dead River Properties had owned the property since 1986. Deb Napolitano of Paragon Commercial Real Estate in Portland, the real estate broker for Dead River Properties, said she could not disclose details of the sale.

Dead River Properties originally had plans to develop the former Orion Center into Scarborough Village Square, a retail center that would be designed to include banks, restaurants and pedestrian walkways. The project had been delayed because Dead River hadn’t secured a grocer to act as an anchor tenant for the development. The property, which is located on roughly 15 acres, has been vacant for the last two-and-a-half years in preparation for development.

“The original plan was for the Orion Center to become a village shopping center that would be pedestrian friendly,” said Bacon. “There would be pedestrian amenities like sidewalks to create a shopping village that would anchor that end of Oak Hill and tie in to development of that area,” he said.

In October, Anne Littlefield, general manager of Dead River Properties, said the developer had been pursuing Whole Foods. “We have talked to them on and off for the last 12 months,” Littlefield said at the time.

Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods has nearly 200 stores

throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. The Portland store, the company’s only location in Maine, opened in February and “has succeeded way beyond our expectations,” according to Chris Snell, North Atlantic regional vice president for Whole Foods.

Snell said in October that the company was looking both north and south of Portland, from York to Falmouth, trying to find the right spot for the second location.

“We’re in a position now where we would jump on it,” he said.

Littlefield said this week Dead River Properties also had been in lease negotiations with other supermarket chains prior to talks with Whole Foods, though she would not name them.

In March 2005, Andy Hyland of Port City Architecture, who was designing the project at the time, said one of the tenants would be a grocery chain that does not yet have a store in Maine. Port City Architecture had developed proposals for Stop & Shop stores in both Kennebunk and Morrill’s Corner in Portland.

In June 2007, the state’s first Stop & Shop opened in Kennebunk. It remains the only Maine location of the Boston-based grocery chain, which has 360 stores in New England, New York and New Jersey.

Founded in 1883, Scarborough-based Hannaford Brothers will add this property acquisition to its existing 164 stores in the Northeast.