Publix to open Winchester Plaza store in summer of '06

Thursday, October 06, 2005

By MARIAN ACCARDI
Times Business Writer accardi@htimes.com

A sixth Publix supermarket in Madison County is expected to be completed by next summer.

The 45,600-square-foot store will be the anchor of Winchester Plaza, a new 75,700-square-foot shopping center on Winchester Road at Homer Nance Road.

Site work started at the property several weeks ago, and is about 60 to 70 percent complete, said Peter Pelt, vice president of development for Equity One Realty & Management SE Inc. of Atlanta. That's a division of Equity One Inc., which owns, develops and operates shopping centers across the South and in the Boston area. Foundation work on the grocery store is expected to start late this month, and "after that you'll see walls coming up," Pelt said. The projected opening date for the Publix store is June 29.

Plans are to build the retail shops on either side of the supermarket and a line of more stores that would face Homer Nance Road. Plans on the company's Web site show the development of the shops in two phases, but "we may choose to do it all at once," Pelt said. "In the next 30 to 45 days we will have a better idea what will happen."

In all, there will probably be 14 to 17 retail stores besides Publix, Pelt said. Those would include a typical mix of retail services for a shopping center, like a dry cleaner, a movie rental store and restaurants, he said. "We're trying to deliver shop space ... by late April or early May" next year.

Pelt didn't disclose the names of any prospective tenants under negotiations.

Four outparcels - three fronting Winchester and another along Homer Nance - are also available for lease or sale.

Another nine acres next to the shopping center will be marketed, probably for neighborhood office/professional uses.

Publix stores are now located in Huntsville on Whitesburg Drive, on U.S. 431, on Bailey Cove Road, and in Madison at the Colonial Promenade and in Madison Centre.

Equity One also owns and manages Madison Centre.