This new Polk County Publix store will be 10,000 square feet bigger than one a half mile away

Plans for a new Publix supermarket are under review and could be approved soon, a Polk County planning department administrator said.

The plans call for construction of a 54,964-square-foot grocery store and a 2,100-square-foot liquor store on 9.22 acres with a parking lot, drainage and utilities. The plans are currently under review.

The new store would be off Havendale Boulevard at at 890 N.W. Jersey Road in unincorporated Winter Haven, which will provide utilities to the new Publix-anchored shopping center.

“Most reviewers have approved it,” said Erik Peterson, a planning administrator for Polk County. “Engineering still has a few outstanding comments that need to be addressed such as a drainage culvert detail, a calculation on the stormwater inlet, and a correction on the paving specs on the right-of-way resurfacing at their entrance.

“Looks like they're close to getting final approval to proceed,” he said recently via email.

The new Publix would be a few hundred yards away from an existing Publix store within the city limits of Auburndale.

Publix's media relations manager Hannah Herring did not return an email asking about the status of the stores.

It remains unclear what Publix intends to do with the existing store at 606 Havendale Blvd. once the new store is open. According to Auburndale, no building permits have been requested for the Publix within city limits since 2023 for an air conditioning unit.

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When Publix Super Markets Inc. was considering opening the new location with a liquor store , it sought and gained a variance from the county because the site is near churches. The county land code prohibits liquor sales within 2,500 feet of a worship facility as well as around schools and day care centers.

The current store, which sits just inside the Auburndale city limits, already has a liquor store.

According to Peterson, documents show a new owner named Brookstone Auburndale LLC as of Aug. 20. The last set of plans were submitted Aug. 23 by Hamilton Engineering, he said.

The Property Appraiser’s Office shows the site was previously owned by Elevation Havendale LLC, which is a corporate entity with offices at Elevation Development in Orlando, state records show.

The existing Publix on Havendale is 10,000 square feet smaller, occupying a 30-year-old building, according to the Polk Property Appraiser. The Publix at Havendale was build in 1994 in a former Kash 'n Karry store.

Lakeland-based Publix Super Markets Inc. has 1,379 store locations across eight states in the southeastern United States. The employee-owed company employs over 255,000 people.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: This new Polk County Publix store will be 10,000 square feet bigger than one a half mile away