BIDDEFORD — It’s official: A Market Basket grocery store will be coming to Biddeford sometime this year. The city planner issued a letter approving the project on Wednesday and a store representative said work on the project will begin immediately.

“We are very excited to be coming to Biddeford,” said Market Basket Operations Manager David McLean, Friday. “We’ve had many customers ask us to come to Maine. We’ve been very humbled by the amount of Mainers welcoming us.”

The Biddeford store would be the first Market Basket in Maine, said McLean.

Currently, the chain is comprised of 69 stores, with 41 in Massachusetts and 28 in New Hampshire, he said.

In addition to the store planned for Biddeford, there are four more Market Baskets in the works, said McLean. One is a replacement store and the others will be in new locations.

According to McLean, if the Biddeford store does well, he expects the company, based in Tewksbury, Mass., will look to expand elsewhere in Maine.

Market Basket performs well and is able to expand because “at our company, we focus on providing exceptional value, quality food options,” he said.

Not all grocery chains are doing as well, however.

The news that the Massachusetts-based chain was given the green light to locate in Biddeford falls on the heels of Thursday’s announcement that Shaw’s and four other grocery store chains owned by Supervalu will be sold to AB Acquisition because of poor performance.

Market Basket, which plans to locate at the site of the former Lowe’s home improvement store at The Shops at Biddeford Crossing on Route 111, will hire between 300 to 350 employees, said McLean. An estimated 15 to 20 percent will be full-time, career employees and the rest will be part time.

In past interviews, Economic Development Director Daniel Stevenson has said that these new jobs will be welcomed in the area.

The store will have a lot to offer its customers, said McLean, including more than 50,000 food offerings, which include local and international food and organic products.

A Markets Kitchen is planned, which will sell prepared food like sandwiches, salads, pizza, sushi and meals to go, and provide tables for those who wish to eat at the store. As well, large-screen televisions for entertainment while eating and free Wi-Fi Internet service is planned.

The store will also include the Markets Cafe that will offer specialty coffee, tea, fresh fruit drinks and other beverages as well as gelato and soft-serve   ice cream. 

Some of the site work that is necessary before the store opens includes reducing the size of the building from the current 139,000 square feet to 125,000 square feet, said City Planner Greg Tansley.

The Codes Enforcement Office has issued a demolition permit for the building reduction, said Assistant Code Enforcement Officer Scott Heyland, interviewed by telephone Friday.

The building will be divided into two or possibly three units, said Tansley. The grocery store will take up approximately 108,000 square feet.

The letter issued by the planning office to approve the chain’s request for a minor site plan change stated that proposed changes to the site do not “significantly alter the use of the site and is consistent with the original approval for the site.”

In addition to reducing the size of the building, other changes will include removing the former Lowe’s garden center to create additional parking, allowing for 650 parking spots to be associated with the store; there will also be landscaping, sewer and drainage work.

Market Basket is a family-owned grocery chain. It dates back to 1917 when Greek immigrants, husband and wife Athanasios and Efrosini Demoulas, started a small corner market to serve the Greek population in Lowell, Mass., said McLean.

— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.