Market Basket Floats 162 Apartments, Retail at Its Chelsea Flagship

Market Basket’s busiest store could soon have apartments for neighbors. A conceptual master plan for the grocery chain’s Chelsea property would add 162 homes and about 39,000 square feet of retail space around the Everett Avenue store, putting housing steps from a commuter rail station and the Silver Line. No formal proposal has been filed, and the chain still needs a private developer to build it, Chelsea officials say.

The Boston Business Journal and WHDH 7News reported on the proposal on Oct. 26, 2026. The plan was prepared for Market Basket parent Demoulas Super Markets by Chelsea-based design firm The Architectural Team, according to Banker & Tradesman, which obtained a copy from the city earlier this month.

What the Chelsea Market Basket housing plan includes

The concept calls for 162 apartments in two mixed-use buildings with structured parking, with shops on the ground floor and homes above. Those buildings would go on two lots of about 1.25 acres each along the Second Street side of the Mystic Mall property, near the Chelsea-Everett line. Banker & Tradesman reported that one lot is a parking area used mostly to store snow and plowing equipment and the other is grass. City Manager Fidel Maltez has called them “the pigeon parcels.” The plan also shows three retail outbuildings on the opposite side of the site.

The plaza already holds Market Basket’s highest-grossing store and about 70,000 square feet of other retail space in several outbuildings, according to Banker & Tradesman. The store recently added a 20,000-square-foot expansion, WHDH reported, and a new MB Spirits liquor store was set to open at the plaza in early October.

Transit access and the new West Chelsea zoning

The site’s biggest selling point is transit. The Chelsea commuter rail station and the terminus of the SL3 Silver Line bus rapid transit route sit behind the Market Basket store, and the high-frequency 111 and 104 bus routes run nearby.

Chelsea adopted new zoning for the area in June that builds on the city’s MBTA Communities district. The West Chelsea overlay removes parking minimums and minimum lot size and frontage rules, allows multifamily housing by right and permits buildings up to 12 stories or 150 feet, with a maximum floor-area ratio of 7.0 and up to 75% lot coverage. The district is generally bounded by the Chelsea-Everett border, Second Street and the Route 1 highway, the Chelsea Record reported.

The city also cut its inclusionary zoning requirement. Developers of projects with 100 or more units can now choose to set aside either 10% of units for renters earning 80% of the area median income or 7% for those earning 60% of it. Maltez told Banker & Tradesman the rules largely mirror Everett’s and respond to developer feedback that the old requirements made new housing impossible to finance.

What still has to happen

The plan is a concept, not an approved project. Market Basket would need a private developer to build the apartments, and Maltez said in early October that the company was in talks with several developers. He also said a meeting had been scheduled between the city and Market Basket’s chief executive to discuss the property and the development process, according to the Chelsea Record.

To help get projects built, Maltez said the city would consider long-term tax abatement agreements, as it has used to attract hotels and the regional FBI headquarters. The new zoning could also open an office property across the street, owned by North Colony Asset Management, to housing on its large parking lots, he told Banker & Tradesman.

The plan comes as housing costs keep rising across the region. The median single-family home price in Greater Boston reached $900,000 in September, as The Boston Report’s latest home sales report showed. Grocery competition is also growing around Boston, with five Wegmans stores now operating in Massachusetts. For more on local companies, development and jobs, see the Boston business and economy section of the Boston News hub.

What officials have said

“It’s a magnet that pulls people into Chelsea,” Maltez told Banker & Tradesman of the Market Basket plaza, adding that the company and the city had worked on the concept for about a year. “We see development as a means to an end,” he said. “Yes, we do want [new] housing to get more taxes, but our residents also want more housing.”

Speaking to WHDH, Maltez described the next steps as “two large parcels on Second Street in Chelsea, creating this mission of mixed use, essentially having retail at the bottom and apartments at the top.” He added: “I think that Chelsea is the Cinderella story of Massachusetts, and we know that it’s a journey and we have to work very hard to ensure we stay on that path.”

Sources

• Boston Business Journal: Market Basket plans 162 homes, retail space at Chelsea flagship store (Oct. 26, 2026)
• WHDH 7News: Market Basket looking into massive redevelopment for area around Chelsea location (Oct. 26, 2026)
• Banker & Tradesman: Apartments Floated for Lots Next to Chelsea Market Basket (Oct. 7, 2026)
• Chelsea Record: Chelsea City Manager provides update on Market Basket, MBTA quiet zone (Oct. 8, 2026)