Market Basket Eyes Factory Site

LYNN, Mass. — Demoulas is eyeing a long-abandoned factory site here to build a new Market Basket supermarket, a company spokesman told SN Tuesday.

The Tewksbury, Mass.-based retailer is in negotiations with the city of Lynn and the owners of the General Electric “Factory of the Future” site on a plan to develop part of that facility.

“We’re working with various parties including the city of Lynn and the property owners as we speak,” Demoulas spokesman David McLean said. “It’s premature for a formal statement, but it is our intention to bring a Market Basket store to Lynn.”

The 68,000-square-foot Factory of the Future was built by GE in the 1980s as a prototype robotic manufacturing plant, but the facility closed more than 20 years ago, according to the Lynn Economic and Industrial Corp. GE said last year it would look to sell the 22-acre site.

Read more: Market Basket to Build on Former Shaw’s Site

Demoulas operates 69 stores and has been on a brisk expansion pace that will bring a Market Basket store to Maine for the first time later this year. That 107,000-square-foot store, under construction in Biddeford, Maine, is set to become the state’s largest grocery store, McLean said.