Publix officially files plans for ‘prototype’ Wiregrass Ranch location

WESLEY CHAPEL — It looks like Publix is coming to Wiregrass Ranch.

While the supermarket giant filed a conceptual plan in 2022 in a pre-application meeting with Pasco County planners, Publix Super Markets Inc. has officially filed plans to begin the formal review and approval process.

Publix is proposing a store on 9.53 acres along Wiregrass Ranch Boulevard, which was completed last year, just south of its intersection with State Road 54. It will be directly across Wesley Chapel Boulevard from Walmart.

The long-awaited store will be known as Publix at Wiregrass Commons.

Last month, the Lakeland-based grocery chain filed plans to build a 60,548-square-foot plaza, which will consist of a 48,848-square-foot Publix, a 2,100-square-foot liquor store and an additional 9,600 square feet of retail shops.

According to the plans filed with the county, the store will be one of the popular Publix prototypes, like the one that recently opened in Innovation Springs on Curley Road.

The Wiregrass Ranch Publix is significantly smaller than the 55,701-square-foot store on Curley Road, as well as two other prototypes on Gandy Boulevard and in Louisville.

The prototypes offer additional shopping services like buffets, food islands serving fresh hot food, patio seating areas and a bar offering a variety of drinks ranging from coffee to wine.

The county typically requires that projects refile for a pre-application meeting if six months have passed with no other action following the initial meeting, due to any land development code changes that may have occurred. But Publix did not have to have a second pre-application meeting because its plans mirrored its original conceptual submission, except for changing engineering firms.

The square footage numbers are the exact same that were listed on the 2022 conceptual plan. And none of the applicable land codes had changed.

The recent filing does not mean you’ll be seeing a Publix on Wiregrass Ranch Boulevard soon. The approval process is likely to take almost two years, so a 2026 opening, if all the approvals go smoothly, appears most likely.

The new Publix does not mean the end of Wesley Chapel’s first Publix, which is in Hollybrook Plaza, about a half-mile west of the proposed additional location.

That’s about as close as you’ll see two Publix stores to each other, but the Hollybrook Publix, which was opened in 1987 and is roughly 60,000 square feet, recently underwent renovations.

John C. Cotey is the managing editor of the Tampa Beacon. He can be reached at jcotey@tampabeacon.com