Milbridge grocery expanding

MILBRIDGE – BaySide Supermarket, the only grocery store in town, has plans to more than triple in size and services by next spring.

The business will lease an 18,000-square-foot building that will be constructed, starting in August, on an empty lot on Main Street.

Leola Carter, owner of the BaySide Supermarket, signed a lease for the new project just last week. The property owners are Kevin Barbee of Milbridge and Tim Ring of Sullivan, working together as K and T Rentals LLC.

“I know what I’ll be doing for the next 20 years, because this is a 20-year lease,” Carter said.

“This is something that the town definitely needs and can support. People won’t have to drive to Ellsworth any more for their bigger shopping.”

The supermarket’s expansion will bring about 15 more jobs, most of them full-time with benefits.

The business also will possibly include a drive-through Dunkin’ Donuts, although the coffee company’s corporate headquarters still needs to give its final approval for that plan. New jobs at Dunkin’ Donuts would be in addition to the grocery’s anticipated new 15 jobs.

The BaySide store is now 5,000 square feet, and Carter is looking for a business to lease the building.

With that in mind, last October she added an 800-foot entry galley that takes customers to a back parking lot. There are a dozen parking spaces there, and the new BaySide location will have parking for 80 cars.

Inside, the new BaySide will have expanded selections in all products, including liquor, meat, produce, deli and seafood.

Carter wants to lease her building to “any business that isn’t in competition with me.

“We could use something that complements the other businesses in town, not compete with anything we have now,” she said. “We want something that is new and fresh and will keep people shopping locally.”

Construction of the new BaySide building should be finished by Christmas. Carter’s target date for opening the store is March 7.

The grocery will take up the lot previously occupied by the Milbridge Market, a 50-year-old building that burned in March 2003.

Last summer, two years after the fire, the owners of the Milbridge Market reopened the In Town Cafe on the far end of the lot for breakfast, pizzas and fried food. But when that business closed, the property changed hands and the small building was demolished to make way for the bigger BaySide construction.

Before the Milbridge Market, the lot had been home to the Frankenstein’s Restaurant and Store.

Frankenstein’s had become known throughout the state for its sponsorship of “Frankenstein’s Country Jamboree” between 1966 and 1971. The 90-minute television program showcased country music by amateur performers.

BaySide’s new neighbors will be Dr. Gordon Trowbridge’s dental office and a single-family home.

The store’s name will change to BaySide Shop ‘n Save, reflecting its status as an independently operated Hannaford’s store. Hannaford’s is asking its independent operators to take on the Shop ‘n Save branding.

BaySide has mostly been a family-owned business in Milbridge since the 1930s. It was started by Orin P. Gay, Carter’s great-grandfather.

Hannaford owned the store for five years, but it came back into the family at least one generation ago. Carter, who had been managing retail chains in Ohio, returned home to Cherryfield to buy the grocery business eight years ago.