SCARBOROUGH – At its meeting on Monday, May 12, the Scarborough Planning Board will review a sketch plan proposal for a new development project at Scarborough Gallery being proposed by Massachusetts-based Waterstone Retail.

A subsidiary of the company, called Waterstone Scarborough, LLC, recently purchased a nearly 19-acre lot at the Scarborough Gallery retail center, which is located between Payne and Mussey roads.

The plans call for construction of a multi-tenant, multi-building, stand-along project at 700 Gallery Boulevard, which is adjacent to Walmart and across the street from the Lowe’s home improvement store.

Town Planner Dan Bacon said the plans call for one large building with four tenants and two smaller buildings, closer to the road, one of which could be a restaurant. He expects the project, which is the biggest retail development proposed in town since the economic downturn, to receive final approval this summer.

“This is certainly the most notable project for this type of retail development in the past five years,” Bacon said this week.

However, he said actual construction would not start for another eight to 10 months. Although Waterstone has not yet named the possible tenants, Bacon said it’s likely the company does have at least one or two anchor stores lined up, which is giving Waterstone the confidence to move forward.

He also said it’s possible that the company would look at phasing construction and putting up the multi-tenant building first and then waiting to build the other two storefronts.

According to a press release from CBRE/The Boulos Company, which brokered the sale of the lot on Gallery Boulevard to Waterstone, much of the planned space has already been “pre-leased to national retailers (and) there are currently only a few units left.”

– Kate Irish Collins