Publix making plans for an 18th store in Bradenton. There probably will be more built
Plans have been submitted to Manatee County government for the Bradenton’s area’s 18th Publix shopping center.
The new shopping center would be built at 1703 Pope Road, near the northern edge of Lakewood Ranch, south of State Road 64 and across from the Mill Creek subdivision. The 48,387-square-foot Publix would be built on 19 acres, along with 20,539-square-feet of other retail and three retail outparcels totaling 16,000-square-feet.
Most recently, Publix opened its 16th supermarket in Manatee County in the Gateway Commons shipping center, located on the southeast corner of the intersection of Interstate 75 with Moccasin Wallow Road.
The 17th Publix is now under construction at State Road 70 and Lorraine Road in Lakewood Ranch.
The 16th, 17th, and 18th Manatee County Publixes were built, are being built, or planned, to serve new or proposed neighborhoods in East Manatee.
Lakewood Ranch and the Parrish-North River areas are the hot spots for home construction in Manatee County.
Lakewood Ranch was home in 2019 to 21 residential villages, 12 business centers, 14,731 homes and a population of 35,547, Rex Jensen, president and CEO of developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, previously said.
This week, Lakewood Ranch reported 1,655 new home sales in 2019, up from 1,479 in 2018.
Meanwhile, developers have approvals or are seeking approvals to build an estimated 25,000 homes in the Parrish-North River area.
Among those projects is Morgan’s Glen Commercial at 11885 Moccasin Wallow Road. Morgan’s Glen has a long history, going back to at least 2006. Plans also call for a 104,300-square-foot grocery store, but not necessarily a Publix.
A Publix spokesman said he did not have any information about the proposed store for Pope Road. Construction could be months or years in the future. Publix usually provides little information about its new stores until closer to an opening date.
The first details about the new project emerged at a county staff meeting Wednesday, when building department staff discussed the status of dozens of projects.
The Gateway Commons supermarket that opened in September is one of the company’s new prototype stores, with the deli located in a circle on the sales floor. Customers can walk completely around the deli and deli staff face outward toward customers.
Kirk Boylston, president of Lakewood Ranch Commercial Realty, did not immediately respond to a request for information about the planned project.
This story was originally published January 8, 2020 at 3:18 PM.