Market Basket Moving Up Into Maine: Report

New England grocery chain Demoulas Market Basket is planning to open its first Maine store next year, in Biddeford, according to a published report that cites town officials. The Tewksbury, Mass.-based chain already operates 69 stores in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Economic Development Director Daniel Stevenson told the Journal Tribune in Biddeford that the store would open in the summer or early fall of 2013. The chosen site is a former Lowe’s that has been empty since the store closed last year.

Family-owned Market Basket plans to invest $11 million in the store renovation, according to the newspaper, which added that local hiring for up to 600 positions, a quarter of them full-time jobs, would take place next summer

Other details divulged by Stevenson were that the approximately 108,000-square-foot supermarket would feature a bakery and café.

Codes Enforcement Officer Roby Fecteau noted in the article that he has met with the store’s project manager to discuss the types of building permits needed for the product, although no permits have been issued yet.

A telephone message PG left for Market Basket’s spokesman hadn’t been returned at presstime.