NASHUA – The city has given the OK to plans to demolish the old Market Basket building in Somerset Plaza and replace it with an LA Fitness health club.

The plans by DeMoulas Super Markets also allow for the construction of a stand-alone Chick-fil-A restaurant and drive-thru located near the Amherst Street entrance to the plaza.

This will be the first LA Fitness facility in New Hampshire and the second Chick-fil-A. There is one in the Pheasant Lane Mall food court.

The Market Basket closed in June when the company opened a much bigger Market Basket at the other end of Somerset Plaza.

The health club will have a slightly smaller footprint than the current vacant building: 45,000 versus 51,000 square feet.

Earle Blatchford, an engineer with Hayner Swanson, a Nashua-based civil engineering and land-surveying firm, detailed the proposed development plans to the city Planning Board on Thursday.

Blatchford said the plaza, at 375 Amherst St., would get a complete makeover, including new lighting and pavement maintenance. He said renovations to the parking lot would be made in stages to minimize disruption to the smaller retail establishments on the west end of the plaza.

DeMoulas plans to contribute just under $36,000 to the city toward the construction of 650 feet of sidewalk alongside the Amherst Street side of the plaza, in lieu of including the sidewalk in the current plan.

The company also is set to contribute $5,000 to the Amherst Street Corridor Fund.

The Planning Board also approved the construction of a four-story, 105-room Homewood Suites hotel on Tara Boulevard in South Nashua, off Spit Brook Road near Exit 1 of the F.E. Everett Turnpike.

The John J. Flatley Co., which owns other properties in the huge development known as Gateway Hills, applied for the new construction.

Richard Cane, planning and development director at the Flatley Co., defended the company’s request for a waiver from a roadside sidewalk, explaining that the site includes plans for 2 miles of sidewalk loop to accommodate pedestrians.

The board granted the sidewalk waiver.

However, an ongoing disagreement on whether to include the construction of a guardrail on Spit Brook Road near Tara Commons, a retail plaza that’s part of the overall development, is yet to be resolved.

The board also approved an application by the Lil’ Iguana’s Children’s Safety Foundation to allow a small retail area at 472 Amherst St.

The foundation is a nonprofit organization that sells donated items to fund children’s safety programs in the community.