Publix Super Markets is looking to rebuild a St. Pete Beach store after the shopping center and its existing location were damaged by a May fire.
The Lakeland grocer says it will soon submit development plans to the city of St. Pete Beach asking for permission to build the store in the Dolphin Village shopping center on Gulf Boulevard.
The plan, if approved, is for the existing 33,000-square-foot store to be replaced with an approximately 51,000-square-foot prototype market with covered parking below an elevated store level. The design will provide enhanced shopper convenience and environmental resilience, says the shopping center’s owner Brixmoor Property Group in a statement.
The store is part of a larger redevelopment underway at the 136,000-square-foot shopping center after a fire broke out at Dolphin Village May 13.
A Brixmoor spokesperson says it started at the CVS Pharmacy and spread to adjacent businesses, including Publix.
“The damage was significant, and fortunately, no injuries were reported,” the spokesperson says in an email Monday.
The Publix store has been closed since the fire so that the company’s construction teams could review next steps. In the meantime, a spokesperson for the grocer says in an email that, “we have been able to place associates at different Publix locations. The safety of our associates, customers and community is our first priority.”
Submitting the plans to the city is just the first step in bringing the store back online.
The Publix spokesperson says details on the timing of the reopening and specific store details aren’t available yet. And Brixmoor, in its statement, says given project entitlements, approvals and construction it is going to be a multi-year process leaving an opening date to be determined.
That said, this being Florida, residents of the Pinellas County barrier island do have other Publix stores to choose from.
According to the grocer’s website, there are 16 Publix locations within 10 miles of the Dolphin Village store. A 17th, at 6605 38th Ave N. in St. Petersburg, is “coming soon.”
Publix currently operates 1,424 stores in eight southern states, 883 of them in Florida. It opened a 31,485-square-foot store in Tampa’s West River community Oct. 23 and a 48,387-square-foot store in Fort Myers Sept. 11.
Two other stores in the region are scheduled to open in November. A 55,701-square-foot store at Lake Miriam Square in Lakeland Nov. 13 and a 48,387-square-foot store at The Shoppes at Orange Blossom in Naples Nov. 20.
Publix employs 260,000 and had $59.7 billion in sales last year.