(Updated: 4:20 p.m.) A mid-Atlantic grocery chain is planning its first Towson location.

Weis Markets will open at the site of the former Super Fresh at Towson Place shopping center by the end of the year, according to company officials.

"We will have to do a considerable amount of work to get it up and running. It will be a multi-million-dollar investment," said Weis spokesman Dennis Curtin. "Hopefully, if all goes well, we will have this up and running and open late in the fourth quarter of this year or early in the first quarter of 2013."

The Super Fresh that had been there closed in 2011 as part of that chain's massive downsizing.

The 55,000-square-foot store will employ about 100 people, Curtin said

"They are going to work very quickly to get it remodeled," said County Councilman David Marks, who Curtin credited for helping the company secure the space. "They're a good supermarket. They have a good reputation."

Weis has locations in five states from Maryland to New York, including two in Perry Hall. This is the chain's first foray into central Baltimore County.

"It's a natural extention of our market for us," Curtin said.

In an April Visions for Vacancies post, we asked readers to guess what might go in the space.