LINCOLN – About 175 new full- and part-time jobs will be created when Wal-Mart transforms its West Broadway store into a 24-hour Supercenter, set to open in late 2008.

Wal-Mart’s announcement followed a 45-minute meeting with town officials Wednesday.

The Lincoln proposal calls for razing the 55,000-square-foot discount store and replacing it with a 99,000-square-foot Supercenter, including an expanded retail area and a full-service grocery store, said Christopher Buchanan, a Wal-Mart spokesman.

“Our store in Lincoln is a popular one, and our customers frequently ask, ‘Hey, when are we getting a Supercenter?’ We felt it was time to offer them one,” Buchanan said. “We are excited about it. It’s a good site for us. We’re not building across town or on a totally new site.”

If the project is approved, construction could begin this summer. No cost estimates are available.

The announcement came less than two days after Bangor’s planning board approved a $23.6 million, 209,000-square-foot Supercenter off Stillwater Avenue. That store is to replace a smaller Wal-Mart a quarter-mile away.

Rumored for years, Wal-Mart’s expansion is the latest sign of Lincoln’s growing stature as a regional hub for commerce, health services and tourism, Town Council Chairman Steve Clay said.

“It sends a good message that the town is in good economic shape,” Clay said. “It might draw more businesses in town when people see that Wal-Mart was willing to make this commitment.”

With a population of 5,200, Lincoln is a rural town an hour north of Bangor off Interstate 95.

Over the past year, Lincoln’s paper mill added a $36 million tissue machine, creating about 40 jobs; Penobscot Valley Hospital finished a new surgical suite; land sales and construction along Lincoln’s 14 lakes have boomed; and a Veterans Administration clinic on River Road is due to open next month. Since 2003, at least six new retail businesses have opened or expanded along West Broadway, one of the town’s main thoroughfares.

“Wal-Mart’s expansion will draw many more people to Lincoln who will not only shop Wal-Mart but will also visit other stores in town,” Town Manager Glenn Aho said.

Wal-Mart store managers told employees about three weeks ago that an expansion would be occurring this spring. Engineers have been doing soil sampling tests on site for about two weeks. Wal-Mart briefed town officials as a courtesy, Buchanan said.

The company must seek permits with the state Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Transportation and Lincoln’s planning board. No application dates have been set, Buchanan said, but Wal-Mart is working with DEP and hopes to begin the application process soon.

The existing store employs 107 full- and part-time workers. No other retailers are part of the expansion, Buchanan said.

Though Wal-Mart has a reputation for being unfriendly to small-town America, particularly downtowns, Aho didn’t expect Lincoln merchants would fight the expansion. Lincoln’s downtown is small and most stores have existed comfortably with the existing Wal-Mart for years, he said.

“Our downtown merchants have niche markets,” Aho said, “and they [Wal-Mart] are not doing a tire and lube facility, no drive-through pharmacy.”

Wal-Mart might challenge the local food stores, Hannaford and Steaks N’Stuff, and 24-hour convenience gas marts. It will have an expanded general merchandise area and a full-service grocery store featuring a bakery, delicatessen, frozen foods, meat and dairy departments, and a fresh produce section.

The Supercenter, Wal-Mart’s 13th in Maine, is supposed to increase the town’s tax base without necessarily increasing the strain on town municipal services or infrastructure, Clay said.

Also known as Route 6, West Broadway is a state road, and Wal-Mart does not anticipate the expansion generating significant traffic problems, Buchanan said. The company will pay for road improvements to ease traffic at the new site.