Status Update: Wawa to open fifth Manatee County store

MANATEE -- Wawa's newest Manatee County convenience store and gas station should open by this summer at an intersection that is seeing some of the county's heaviest commercial construction.

The store at 4506 53rd Ave. E. is part of a 26-acre redevelopment project at the southeast corner of State Road 70 and Lockwood Ridge Road. It is the site of a former Winn- Dixie grocery that was demolished last year. Georgia development company Gryboski Howe & Gravley is building about 116,000 square feet of commercial space there. Other projects under construction there include a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market and a car wash.

The new store will be Wawa's fifth location in Manatee County. It opened its first in the county in December 2014 at 701 First St. E.

At just over 6,100 square feet, the new Wawa will be about the same size as the other four. The Pennsylvania-based convenience store chain is known for its amenities, including hoagie sandwiches made in-house. The stores also feature hot and iced coffee, fountain drinks, frozen beverages, pastries, and on-the-go snacks and meals. Wawa stores in Manatee typically have about 20 fuel pumping stations.

When the company moved into Florida a few years ago, it came with a new station design specifically for the state. The new prototype was designed by Coleman Brandworx in New York City and Cuhaci and Peterson Architects in Orlando.

Colleen Labik, a Wawa spokeswoman, said the new Manatee store is scheduled to open by this summer. Officials with the general contractor building the Wawa, AT Construction Management, said construction work will finish in mid-April. The Neighborhood Market next door will be completed in March.

Wawa operates more than 700 stores in Florida, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia. It opened its 700th store at 5306 14th Street W.

Status Update, published Saturdays, is the Herald's weekly look at the progress of construction projects throughout Manatee County.

This story was originally published February 19, 2016 at 5:51 PM with the headline "Status Update: Wawa to open fifth Manatee County store ."