Updated at 4:40 p.m. 01/07/2010 for a correction about the possible opening date.

Wegmans has released the long-awaited design for its big new East Avenue grocery near Winton Road in the city: a half-block-long building with a clock tower and a Market Cafe.

If city officials approve the plan, the store will be built just east of the current Wegmans store, replacing that building and all but one of the other buildings on that block. (The owner of a small building near Winton, housing the Fountain Bleu hair salon, has refused to sell his property.)

The new Wegmans store would be 105,000 square feet (compared to the current 41,000), with 90,000 square feet on the main floor and 15,000 on a mezzanine and second floor, which will house offices and a seating area for the cafe. There would be underground parking for Wegmans employees and an expanded surface parking lot just west of the store.

During early discussions about Wegmans' plans, some neighbors said they were worried that the new store would create a long, blank wall along East Avenue. In the current design, arches break up the East Avenue facade, and windows provide views into the cafe on the southwest end of the building. There would also be an entrance into the cafe from the East Avenue sidewalk. Entrance to the grocery would be along the west side, from the parking lot, as it is with the current store.

Wegmans spokesperson Jo Natale says the earliest possible opening date is probably the summer of 2012. "We have a ways to go on the approval process," she said this afternoon. Wegmans hopes to get city approvals in August or September at the earliest, she said.

For much of the construction, the current store would remain open while the new one is built. Then the old one would be demolished and the parking lot would be expanded.

There would be a three-month period where both stores would be closed.