The Haines City area may soon have a new Publix grocery store, this one on the corner of Johnson Avenue and Powerline Road. A permit was filed with the Southwest Florida Water Management District by Palm Beach Gardens-based real estate developer Blackfin Partners on Nov. 11 for the commercial development.
Along with a Publix, the permit says the development will support a liquor store, gas station, and “other future development and associated infrastructure.” The Publix and liquor store would have a combined 50,000 square feet, with another 9,800 square feet of adjacent inline retail. The site plan shows two outparcels on Powerline Road of 1.5 and 1.7 acres and a third parcel east on Johnson Avenue with 3.45 acres available.
The property is just south of Cassidy Holding’s Crosswinds subdivision. Cassidy’s proposed residential planned unit development (RPUD) covers 603 acres in Haines City and would eventually add 444 townhomes and 2,646 single-family homes to what is now vacant agricultural land. Crosswinds, when built out, would add an estimated 9,000 residents to Haines City. The city currently has about 24,000 residents.
Haines City has another Publix 3.5 miles east of this proposed location at Haines City Mall, but could be replaced with a new store at the Crossroad Village Center at the southwest corner of U.S. 17-92 and U.S. 27. Black Mountain Group is the developer of that 120-acre mixed-use planned development and filed a master plan last year naming Publix as the grocer for the retail plaza but the company has denied they are in lease negotiations.
Founded in Winter Haven in 1930, Publix has 1,315 store locations and is the largest employee-owned company in the United States.
The area of Johnson Avenue and Power Line Road, along with Hinson Avenue has been a hotspot for Haines City since 2019. Communities including Hidden Lake Preserve and Summerlin Groves are located here.
Kimley Horn is the civil engineer and landscape architect on Blackfin’s project called Shops at the Grove. Basepoint Surveying Inc. is the surveyor. According to the water permit, the store will be 48,387 square feet with 313 parking spaces.
Blackfin – a developer, owner, and operator of grocery-anchored and community shopping centers, as well as single-tenant properties – is marketing Champions Station, a 14-acre commercial center on U.S. 27 at Bella Cita Boulevard in Davenport across from a new Publix-anchored center developed by Park Square Commercial.
Blackfin also is marketing a 3.69-acre corner site in Winter Haven, half a mile from Cypress Gardens Boulevard. Calls and emails to Blackfin weren’t returned to GrowthSpotter.
Growthspotter Editor Laura Kinsler contributed to this report.
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