West Lebanon — Yes, it is a sign — although it’s not pointing to the imminent arrival of a new tenant for the former Shaw’s supermarket in the Upper Valley Plaza on Route 12A in West Lebanon.

WS Development, the owner of Upper Valley Plaza, is in the process of erecting a $57,000 pylon sign at the shopping center that is home to Kohl’s, JCPenney, Sears and other retail stores. The sign will identify the name of the shopping center along with room for the names of other plaza tenants, said Andrew Manning, project manager at Chestnut Hill, Mass.-based WS Development.

“There hasn’t been a sign there for several years, which we took down during the road construction,” Manning said, referring to a former sign that was removed to make way for the Interstate 89 overpass project in 2010. “But it’s important for our tenants in the plaza, especially some of the smaller ones who people may not know are there.”

The 30-foot tall sign, which will advertise the names of Kohl’s, JCPenney, Sears and women’s apparel retailer Maurices in large blocks on the upper half and the plaza’s nine other retailers in smaller blocks on the lower half, will be set back 12 feet from Route 12A, also known as Plainfield Road.

But no, Manning said, the sign does not signal a new tenant has been found for the former Shaw’s market on the north side of plaza, which has been vacant for several years. Rumors have come and gone that footwear retailer DSW was eyeing the space, as well as craft and fabrics store Michael’s — one version even had DSW and Michael’s dividing the space. A Michael’s outlet is instead being planned to go into the space currently occupied by Books-a-Million in the Wal-mart shopping plaza.

So what’s been holding leasing the former Shaw’s building? Manning declined to go into the reasons, but one challenge has been that the lease is still held by Shaw’s, and the supermarket chain does not want to sublease even to a retailer like Target that is moving into selling groceries to compete with supermarkets.

Manning, who wouldn’t reveal when Shaw’s lease expires, said WS Development has been “working diligently” on finding a business to fill the space.

— John Lippman