A Panera Bread franchise may soon replace one of the worst Storey Avenue eye-sores – the deteriorating and abandoned Asian restaurant building which used to be Ming Jade, according to city officials and Minco Corp. executive, Austin Spinella.
It is expected to sign its preliminary agreement to purchase the property in the next few days, Spinella said. The property is owned by a New York investor. Minco is negotiating the sale to the Panera Bread franchisee.

Spinella said: "We are excited about Panera Bread coming to Newburyport. People are going to love Panera Bread. It will be a major new addition to the great casual dining restaurants in town."

The Ming Jade restaurant has been closed for years. The 3,847 square foot building is badly deteriorated. In the past a Burger King franchise considered buying the property.

Once the preliminary purchase agreement is signed, Panera will make a formal application to the city planning department to demolish the old Asian restaurant and begin construction of the building that will house Panera Bread.

The casual dining restaurant chain owns and franchises 1,362 bakery-cafes across the country. There are several Panera Bread cafes in the area, including ones in Portsmouth and Dover, NH, and in North Andover, Danvers, Beverly and Saugus.

The company is weathering the recession nicely, and on Jan. 20 reported fourth quarter 2009 sales increased 7.4% year on year on a calendar basis. Company-owned comparable bakery-cafe sales were up in all three months in the fourth quarter - by 6.8%, 6.1%, and 9.6%, for October, November, and December, respectively. January kicked off with sales up 9.4% in the first 21 days.

Panera Bread claims to bake more bread each day from scratch than any bakery-cafe chain in the country. It features made-to-order sandwiches, tossed-to-order salads and soup served in bread bowls.