BRUNSWICK — As construction continues on a new Cooks Corner connector road, the town is looking to move forward with plans for the new Hannaford Supermarket, set to open in the first quarter of 2020 if everything goes smoothly, according to Stan Glantz, a representative of Katz Properties.
The planning board will hold a public hearing and then vote on the Hannaford site application at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
The new, 50,000 square foot grocery store in the Cooks Corner Shopping Mall was announced last month and will coincide with “substantial investments and improvements,” to Brunswick’s existing Hannaford downtown, according to company spokesman Eric Blom.
The new building will bring 150 new jobs and offer a full-service pharmacy with drive-through and Hannaford To Go, a service that allows customers to select items online and pick up their orders at the store. Hannaford representatives declined to comment on the cost of construction.
The Cooks Corner redevelopment will include the demolition and reworking of several businesses. The current space occupied by Staples will be demolished to clear the way for a new building after Staples relocates to the site of Kim’s Hallmark, which announced at the end of last month that it was moving to the Topsham Fair Mall. That will leave about 4,000 square feet of unoccupied space that Glantz said they hope to fill soon, according to minutes from an earlier meeting.
Shaw’s, just down the road in Merrymeeting Plaza, will stay open. That and the existing Hannaford are Brunswick’s only two large grocers, not including WalMart.
“A lot of folks don’t come into the downtown to do their grocery shopping,” Smith said in an earlier interview.
Construction on the Cooks Corner connector road began in November and is expected to finish in late summer. It will include a new driveway entrance for Hannaford at the south side of the road, according to meeting minutes.
The $2 million, 1500-foot road will link Admiral Fitch Avenue with Gurnet Road and create another access point to Brunswick Landing, which will hopefully alleviate some of the traffic build-up in the Cooks Corner area.
The new Hannaford is expected to open up a “whole new (consumer) market,” and will draw shoppers from Harpswell and elsewhere, according to Linda Smith, economic development director. The store will be Hannaford’s 64th supermarket in Maine
“We think it’ll be a great addition to the area and we’re looking forward to getting to work on it,” said Mitch Feeney, Hannaford real estate representative.
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