SCARBOROUGH – A new two-story structure will be built in the coming weeks along Gallery Boulevard in Scarborough, but it’s not a new store. The looming monolith will be, instead, a giant mound of dirt and other material placed where those shops, at least four of them, will eventually go.

According to Nancy St. Clair of Cumberland-based St. Clair Associates – who appeared at the Aug. 26 Planning Board meeting on behalf of the applicant, Waterstone Retail of Needham, Mass. – the dirt-pile will sit in place for roughly one year. It is needed, she said, to compress all water from the clay subsurface, thus ensuring that the buildings, when they do go up, will not shift and crack.

“Basically, clay has a memory,” she said. “So, if you over-consolidate it, it’s not going to settle as much, post-construction.

“This is a very expensive piece of the overall construction costs and I think it’s probably been a factor in the timing of the development of this site,” said St. Clair. “Obviously, the economy has been a factor. But this is the last piece in the puzzle bringing this site all together.”

There remains one other, smaller parcel on the Scarborough Gallery plan that remains undeveloped. However, that site is largely subject to a conservation easement.

According to St. Clair, the dirt pile will arrive on site in the next six to eight weeks. Barring unforeseen complications, it will be dispersed around the site for fill and building construction will start in the fall of 2014. The new stores, unnamed at this point, should be ready to open in late 2015.

Plans call for four retail spaces in one large building located on the vacant lot between Walmart and Gallery Boulevard, opposite the Lowe’s home improvement store. Two smaller shops, totaling 13,000 and 5,640 square feet, are to be bookended by bigger box stores, totaling 43,000 and 45,000 square feet, respectively. The plan, originally proposed following the 2002 zoning change that created the 89-acre Scarborough Gallery area, also calls on 450 parking spots, a smaller 2,250-square-foot retail shop, and a 5,000-square-foot restaurant. The two “stand-alone” buildings are to be located adjacent to the road. However, both could get excised from the construction schedule, depending on economic drivers and zoning rules, said St. Clair.

“In the timeframe of the original approval of the subdivision, there was an 80-foot setback in this district,” he said. “That’s obviously changed very much now. For the satellite buildings we intend very much to try and keep with the current zoning.”

Town Planner Dan Bacon said St. Clair’s appearance before the Planning Board was largely a formality, given previous approvals and state permits the company already has in hand.

“They don’t technically need approval to begin clearing and prepping and pre-loading the site,” he said. “This is really just an opportunity for them to re-introduce the project and get recommendations from staff before they expend what I think it going to be a significant investment.”

Still, that did not prevent board members from weighing in.

“Even though the Gallery is what I’ll call a mish-mash of buildings, I hope in the final analysis that the architecture will be consistent with what we are trying to accomplish as far as the overall area is concerned,” said Ron Mazer.

“We have what amounts to a two-story mound of dirt,” said Chairman Allen Paul. “I’m kind of curious, what’s everybody going to be looking at for the next 10 to 12 months?”

“Some of that will be buffered, although we can’t screen the entire area,” said St. Clair.

On its website, Waterstone Retail boasts more than 30 developments in six states, including eight sites in New Hampshire. The company claims it “focuses on grocery-anchored power and non-traditional specialty centers.” Its lone Maine parcel, the 50,000-square-foot Kittery Outlet Center, includes a Crate & Barrel outlet and a Cuddledown Home Furnishings store.

The front, side and rear design plans of six new stores to be opened by Waterstone Retail of Needham, Mass., on Gallery Boulevard in Scarborough by the fall of 2015. Work is slated to begin on the site within the next eight weeks.

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