SCARBOROUGH – Plans are under way for a new shopping center to be built in the Oak Hill area of Scarborough, on what is said to be the largest commercially zoned parcel left in the town’s central business district, behind the Dolphin Marketplace at 183 U.S. Route 1.

Meanwhile, directly adjacent to that site, a separate development will bring two 20,000-square-foot office buildings, one of which is said to already have an “operations center” for a tenant.

An application for the latter project was submitted to the town Monday. It will be built on 2 acres off Foley Farm Road owned by Risbara Family Development. Foley Farm Road runs between Wendy’s and Key Bank to a dead end behind Hannaford’s. The Scarborough Planning Board will review Risbara’s plan at its next meeting, on Aug. 5.

No formal application has been turned in at this time for the shopping center, to be built on 8.2 acres behind The Egg & I restaurant. However, a prospectus issued July 17 by Prudential Prime Properties of South Portland, on behalf of The Dolphin Companies, which owns the site, calls on the complex to be anchored by a 40,000-square-foot grocery store.

Also on tap are an 8,000-square-foot restaurant and a 13,500-square-foot retail space in two buildings on either side of the grocery “anchor store.” Prudential also is shopping a 4,500-square-foot space directly on Route 1 in front of the Dolphin Marketplace. That building will include a drive-through, said Prudential Vice President Michael Rogers on Monday, adding that it could be suitable for a bank, or an additional restaurant.

“Right now, we’re attracting prospective tenants,” said Rogers. “We showed the main property twice last week.”

It remains to be seen how Hannaford will react to a competing grocery store in its back yard.

At a May 21 neighborhood meeting called to discuss the future of the Dunstan Corner neighborhood, further up Route 1, a mid-sized grocery store was seen as key to revitalizing the area. However, Town Planner Dan Bacon said at the time that Hannaford has twice blocked attempts to open competing grocery stores in town, by buying up property targeted for development.

While Rogers acknowledged it is possible a grocery store might not make the final cut, if some other tenant suitable to a 40,000-square-foot building emerges, he is proceeding as broker for the project with it in mind as the centerpiece of the development.

“Everything is on the table,” he said. “The developer’s goal is to improve Oak Hill as a neighborhood center for everyone, using environmentally friendly practices, encouraging sustainability, and incorporating a walking trail to link the entire site to the Oak Hill community, with the vision of fostering mixed-use development, including nearby residential property and offices, allowing people to live, work, walk and play sans driving.”

“I’m excited to announce this project,” said Dolphin principal Dr. Steven Brier, who also serves as executive director of the Little Dolphin School Foundation. “We have worked closely with the Scarborough planning office and the Scarborough Economic Development Corporation and look forward to working with Scarborough stakeholders to construct a center complementing Oak Hill and making it an even more desirable and attractive place

to shop, eat and play with walking trails, outdoor seating and a more efficient traffic flow.”

Brier has a history of medical, educational and retail real estate development in Maine, New York and Massachusetts, including child-care centers for The Little Dolphin School in Westbrook and Scarborough. He also handled land development for the Cinemagic Theater in Westbrook, in addition to the Dolphin Marketplace on Route 1 in Scarborough.

“We’ve been working with them for the last few months on this new project,” said SEDCO Executive Director Karen Martin, on Monday. “They have some great ideas for the property and we’ve provided them with information to help market the site.”

Among those statistics are an average household income of $94,058 within 3 miles of the development site and average annual retail sales topping $511 million in the same radius. Restaurant sales are said to exceed $100 million within 5 miles of the project.

There’s room to support additional development, said Martin, although, like Rogers, she said it’s too soon to say how closely the final site plan application will match the Prudential prospectus.

“I think what they’re trying to do will be a real asset for the town,” she said. “They’ve been talking to a lot of people and feel comfortable, I think, that something is imminent. Still, my understanding is that they have not signed anyone on the bottom line. So, there’s still room for change.”

With firm development plans still up in the air, the town has been unwilling to speculate on what the final plan may entail, including the developer’s offer to let any new grocery store rename Little Dolphin Drive.

“We’ve had a couple of pre-application meetings, but until something is submitted to us, there’s really not anything I can say about it,” said Jay Chace, Scarborough’s assistant town planner, on Friday.

Little Dolphin Drive currently runs from Route 1 to a dead end between the planned shopping center and the Risbara project. Plans call on the road to turn in front of the new grocery store and connect to Foley Farm Road, behind Hannaford.

On Monday, Bill Risbara said the two buildings his company plans to put up near where Foley Farm Road and Little Dolphin Drive are due to meet each have two stories of 10,000-square-feet. A single tenant is expected to take over both floors of one of the buildings, when complete, while negotiations are under way for the second.

“There’s nobody that we can name right now, but we can say we have an operations facility at this time,” said Risbara.

“Between the Shops at Oak Hill Village, and the plans of the abutting property owner, this whole area will be changing,” said Rogers.

This map of the area behind the Dolphin Marketplace at 183 U.S. Route 1, shows an 8.2-acre site to be developed, labeled “Shops at Oak Hill Village,” as well as the future home of two office buildings to be built by Risbara Bros. Construction, labeled, “Planned development by abutting owner.”