This week the Buzz is waiting for a Big Mac and trying to find where the baby wipes aisle ended up.

In Auburn, a $2.5 million renovation is underway at the Hannaford grocery store on Spring Street. Shelves and stock have been moved around as the store gets new flooring and fixtures.

Spokesman Eric Blom said the work, which is going on inside and outside, should be finished toward the end of the year.

“There’s a variety of improvements that are being made,” Blom said. “We’re adding some product, especially in the natural and organic product line. The overall goal is to make the store even easier to shop so people will have more room to move.”

A $90,000 Clynk Box bottle redemption kiosk is going in the parking lot.

In February, Hannaford started a $2.9 million renovation of its Sabattus Street store in Lewiston. That’s expected to finish up in early fall, Blom said.

McChanges

McDonald’s in Lewiston is getting a $300,000 makeover. The dining room at 1035 Lisbon St. is closed for construction and is expected to reopen in late June or early July, spokeswoman Angele Busch said.

“This store will feature all of the latest and greatest upgrades,” Busch said, including digital self-order kiosks, mobile app ordering and paying (pickup at the counter, drive-through or curbside) and table service.

“The upgrades that will be featured at this restaurant are reflective of a new restaurant model that has been successfully rolled out in more than 150 McDonald’s restaurants across New England that gives guests more choice and control by evolving how they order, what they order, how they pay and how they are served,” Busch said. “McDonald’s goal is to modernize most U.S. restaurants by 2020.”

New nursing home

The walls are going up this week on a $4.2 million John F. Murphy Homes nursing home at 325 Summer St. in Auburn.

CEO Peter Kowalski said it will replace a nursing home for people with significant disabilities in Mechanic Falls. The 14 residents and roughly 50 staff in Mechanic Falls will move to the new 16,000-square-foot Auburn facility this winter.

“It’s going to be more space, more energy-efficient, more everything,” Kowalski said. “It has to be built all to nursing home standards: the 8-foot corridors, the humongous generator to run everything, everything has to be smoke-proof. It is a health care facility, so you have all the heavy-duty fire marshal requirements.”

Residents will have their own rooms, which will be organized into three pods with common areas. The building, which Kowalski described as a simple box construction, will have a physical therapy room, a commercial kitchen and a commercial laundry.

“We want to be in before the snow flies,” he said.

Retail mystery solved?

Lewiston and Auburn released permit reports for May this week and “busy” about sums up the month.

In Lewiston, 168 permits were issued for a total of $1.63 million in work that included $600,000 for 144 new units announced last fall at Sabattus Street Storage, $100,000 for a new addition at Moody’s Collision Center and four swimming pools.

In Auburn, 102 permits were issued for a total of $5.06 million in work, an active month that’s continued an active year, Deputy Director of Economic and Community Development Eric Cousens said.

“In this case, it was a lot of medium-sized projects,” he said.

Those included $159,000 to renovate classrooms into offices at Central Maine Community College and $900,000 for the new development next to Hobby Lobby that will be more than half taken up by Mattress Firm.

Going next door to Mattress Firm?

Well, Kay Jewelers has applied for a $175,000 interior fit-up permit there, according to city records. Kay is down the road in the Auburn Mall.

A spokesman declined to comment, saying, “We are constantly evaluating all of our retail locations to ensure that we are delivering the very best experience to every customer, however, we do not comment on existing lease agreements.”

Quick hits about business comings, goings and happenings. Have a Buzzable tip? Contact staff writer Kathryn Skelton at 689-2844 or kskelton@sunjournal.com.

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