Long-awaited Alachua Publix set to open Saturday
There is now a Publix in Alachua, Florida! The ribbon cutting occurred yesterday, so the store is now open for business. eda prepared the civil engineering plans and survey for this project.
We’ve posted Gainesville Sun article reporting on the ribbon cutting of their new campus.
Alachua Mayor Gib Coerper said he’s heard talk and rumors about a Publix grocery store coming to different parts of the city since he arrived there 41 years ago. It got to where he would tell people they’ll know for sure when a sign goes up saying “Publix coming soon,” dirt is turned and walls start going up.
He’ll be on hand for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 7:45 a.m. Saturday before Alachua’s Publix supermarket opens its doors for the first time at 8 a.m. at 15193 NW U.S. 441, just east of Santa Fe High School and west of the Interstate 75-U.S. 441 interchange.
“It’s been a long time coming and people are excited about it,” Coerper said.
The 45,600-square-foot store will include the traditional grocery, meat, produce, dairy and frozen food departments, as well as a pharmacy, bakery, deli, floral department and fresh seafood.
The new Alachua Market Place also includes a separate 1,300-square-foot Publix liquor store and space for up to six more tenants.
Tenants to sign leases so far include a China Dragon Chinese restaurant, Great Clips hair salon and Nail First nail salon, according to Dan Drotos of Bosshardt Realty Services, which is handling leasing. Plans also call for an outparcel that could house a restaurant.
A Publix spokesman did not return a call for comment Friday.
Coerper said the location seems a little out of Publix’s norm, which is to be in family neighborhoods surrounded by thousands of people, but that stretch of U.S. 441 has a lot of traffic from High Springs, southern Columbia County and Gilchrist County for people driving through town or getting on the interstate to go to work, and will be a convenient grocery stop when they return home.
“The idea here, I think, is they’re going to serve a pretty large area on this side of the county,” he said.
Alachua has a Hitchcock’s Market, being home to the first to open in 1945.
“Hitchcock’s will be OK,” Coerper said. “They’re changing stuff around to keep being successful.”
It could also be home to a Wal-Mart Supercenter, which would include a full grocery section. The city and Alachua County officials are still wrangling over environmental issues at the proposed site southeast of the I-75-U.S. 441 interchange.
Lowe’s Home Improvement opened the first big-box store in the city in 2009.
The store is Publix’s 14th in Alachua County and plans are in for a smaller store near the University of Florida campus.
