Soil conditions for the proposed Tractor Supply Co. store at 1600 Auburn Road in Turner are delaying construction until 2027, the developer has announced.

“It is coming for sure,” Adam Sellner, of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Primax Properties, said. “The soil needed a lot of conditioning.

“We would love to start soon,” he said, but they need to wait until a structural engineer determines it is settled enough. The settling process could take about a year, more or less, he said.

Once begun, construction is expected to take about six months, Sellner said. He estimated they would be building in 2027 and it could be done by late in the year.

The planning board approved a permit for the project in March 2024 for building about 20,000 square feet and about the same size area for a fenced-in outdoor display area and a garden area.

The total cost was estimated at $5.1 million on the application in 2023, Town Manager Kurt Schaub said, but it will likely be more because of higher costs.

He said the site has been loaded with additional soils and material to squeeze excess moisture out of the base and stabilize it to support a building.

Schaub said the developer of the Hannaford store on Snell Hill Road had to do the same thing with the soil there before it could build on the site.