Five Below to open store on Cortez Road in Bradenton

BRADENTON -- Five-dollar discount chain Five Below plans to open its first store in Manatee County in 2016.

The publicly traded company, which sells products primarily aimed at teens and pre-teens, will open a store in Cortez Plaza East, a 101,000-square-foot strip mall located at 825 Cortez Road West. Franklin Street, a Tampa company that manages the mall for owner Bradenton Associates, has applied for permits to build the store on the site of a former, open-air garden center at the west end of the strip mall, according to county records.

When complete, the planned 7,956-square-foot retail space would open next to a number of big box and discount retail outlets in the mall, including Party City, Michaels, Bed Bath & Beyond and Dollar Tree.

According to Five Below's website, the company's stores sell a variety of items priced at $5 and less, including paper products, toys, cosmetics, cellular phone accessories and candy.

Operating over 360 stores in 19 states, Five Below currently operates five stores between North Port and Tampa. The nearest Five Below locations to Manatee County are in the Sarasota Pavilion near Siesta Key and a Cocoplum Village store in North Port.

Founded in 2002, the company has seen significant revenue growth in the past few years. It posted $680 million in revenue in 2014, according to its most recent annual filing with the Securities Exchange Commission. That is about $145 million more than the previous year.

Matt M. Johnson, Herald business reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7027 or on Twitter@MattAtBradenton.

This story was originally published January 5, 2016 at 6:32 PM with the headline "Five Below to open store on Cortez Road in Bradenton."