LINCOLN — Pharmacy giant Rite Aid Corp. plans to replace its two Lincoln stores with a single new one.

The existing two stores, located at the Mini Mall and the Lincoln Shopping Plaza, will be replaced with a 10,752-square-foot store downtown.

The new site was formerly occupied by Loundsbury’s Shop ‘n Save and the D L&L Corp. It is at the intersection of West Broadway and High Street. Both of the buildings on the site will be razed as soon as the sale of the property is complete, according to Richard Gendron of Gendron Retail Inc. of Falmouth.

Rite Aid spokesman Craig Muckle said the 20 people employed in the two store should not be left without jobs. “Usually when we close stores people are given the opportunity to transfer,” said Muckle from the company’s Harrisburg, Pa., headquarters. Gendron estimates the new Rite Aid will employ 12-15 people.

Gendron said the sale should be complete within 60 days. The real estate company and project developer will construct the building for Rite Aid.

Construction of the 84-by-128-foot building with a drive-through pharmacy window is expected to be completed late this year or early next year.

“I’m pleased Rite Aid decided to locate in the downtown area rather than West Broadway,” said Lincoln Town Manager Glenn E. Aho. “Hopefully, other businesses will follow suit and come back down to Main Street.”

The town’s code enforcement officer, Annette Merrithew, added, “It’s an excellent project for that corner.”

The town will gain some value to its tax rolls. Construction of the building is estimated to cost about $590,000. The two existing buildings are valued at about $183,000 by the town.

Although company officials would not confirm it, the move in Lincoln may be in response to a Federal Trade Commission ruling earlier this year. The FTC ruled that Rite Aid had violated a settlement accord reached more than a year ago because it failed to sell two stores in Maine and a third in New Hampshire. The stores were acquired as part of the purchase of more than 50 LaVerdiere’s drugstores in 1994.

The LaVerdiere’s stores were in locations where there were Rite Aid-owned stores, and it was believed the purchase could lessen competition to the point of creating a monopoly, according to the December 1994 agreement. Rite Aid, the nation’s largest drugstore chain, was supposed to sell either Rite Aid or LaVerdiere’s stores by mid-December 1995.

With no buyers, the FTC took the sale out of the hands of the company and appointed a Portland accountant as trustee to head the sale of stores in Bucksport and Lincoln and in Berlin, N.H.