What's Going on With Wegmans?

It appears Newton will have to wait a bit longer to scratch the Wegmans shopping itch.

A spokeswoman for the grocery chain said that the opening of its Chestnut Hill store has been delayed until spring 2014, though the original timeline anticipated an opening in fall 2013.

"Some construction delays and demands of other projects that we're building forced us to move it back just a little," said Jo Natale, director of media relations for Wegmans. She said a typical pace of opening is two to three stores per year.

Natale said that work on the Chestnut Hill location is going well and that the developer has delivered the store's shell to Wegmans. The grocery chain designs and constructs its stores individually, Natale explained, adding that work on the interior of the Newton store is underway.

The 82,000-square-foot Chestnut Hill location will feature a 70,000-square-foot main floor and a 12,000-square-foot second level that will house a wine, beer and spirits shop, Natale explained.

She said that most Wegmans locations are in the 100,000 to 140,000-square-feet range, but that was simply too large for the Chestnut Hill site.

"This is a very exciting project," Natale said. "It [the Chestnut Hill site] would not accommodate a large store, so we have worked on designing a store that will deliver everything customers have come to expect in a Wegmans, except on a smaller scale."

Last Sunday, Wegmans opened a similarly sized store, 86,000 square feet, in Rochester, N.Y.

"We're going to learn a lot from this store and hopefully perfect everything for Chestnut Hill," Natale said.

The Chestnut Hill location is scheduled to be one of two Wegmans opening in Massachusetts next year. A location in Burlington remains on schedule to open in summer 2014.