Both Great Harvest Bread bakeries in Lexington have closed

Lexington's Great Harvest Bread Co. bakeries, in Idle Hour Shopping Center and Palomar Center, have closed.

Mike Ferretti, president and CEO of Great Harvest Franchising for the baking company based in Dillon, Mont., said that the company hopes to return to the Lexington market soon.

Signs were posted, apparently late last week or early this week, on the front doors of both locations informing customers of the closing and thanking them for their patronage. Great Harvest first opened in Stonewall Center in 1985, then moved to Palomar Center in 1996. The Idle Hour location opened in 1993.

"We still think the Lexington market is fabulous," Ferretti said. "Lexington has been very good to us for over 20 years. ... We have zero intention of pulling out of that market."

Great Harvest wants the store in Idle Hour to expand its offerings — adding sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches and catering — if it returns, Ferretti said. The space would need to be renovated, he said. The Palomar Center store sold sandwiches.

Jim Holbrook, senior property manager at NAIC Isaac, which oversees rental at Idle Hour, said that while he could not comment about Great Harvest, the space it occupied will be going back on the market soon.

"At some point in time in the near future it will be," he said.

Great Harvest is known for its healthy approach to baking using whole wheat flour, which is ground daily in each bakery.

The closing of the two Lexington stores leaves the company, which has franchises all over the country from Wisconsin to Hawaii, with just one Kentucky location: Owensboro.

This story was originally published January 28, 2015 at 1:59 PM with the headline "Both Great Harvest Bread bakeries in Lexington have closed."