Wegmans plans new store on Flutie Pass in Natick, Mass.

Wegmans Food Markets Inc. has announced plans to open a new store in a Massachusetts mall, next to a road named after a former Buffalo Bills quarterback and ex-spokesman for the company.

The Gates-based grocer said that it wants to open a 125,000-square-foot store next to Flutie Pass, a road in Natick named after Doug Flutie in honor of his 1984 Hail Mary touchdown for Boston College against the Miami Hurricanes. Natick is located about 10 miles west of Boston.

Wegmans has said the former spokesman for Flutie’s Favorite Sub was not involved in bringing the grocer to Natick, where the former quarterback played high school football. Flutie worked with Wegmans from 1998-2000, according to the company.

The new store would be Wegmans’ fifth in Massachusetts after it opens a store in Westwood later this year. It will be built on two floors of the three-level, 194,000-square-foot space being vacated by J.C. Penney Inc. and leased by Chicago-based mall owner General Growth Properties. Wegmans plans to fill the remaining space with related businesses.

“The fact that this will be our first multi-level store within a major mall only adds to our enthusiasm for this project,” said Ralph Uttaro, Wegmans' senior vice president of real estate.

Wegmans still needs to obtain various approvals for the project, but hopes to begin construction early next year with an eye on opening sometime during the spring of 2017. Wegmans had sales of $7.4 billion last year and currently operates a total of 86 stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland and Massachusetts.

It has plans to open 12 stores in that footprint.

TCLAUSEN@DemocratandChronicle.com