By Stan Karpf, GSAC Board Member
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For many years, there has been much discussion regarding the future of our neighborhood Publix; the store located on Neopolitan Way was officially closed two days after Thanksgiving, November 30, at 7PM.

GSAC has received a number of inquiries from members as to what is happening on the site moving forward since the Publix website states the store is “permanently closed”.

We decided to investigate and were able to gather some information from a Publix representative and a recent article in Gulfshore Business, here is what we know.

Although the website states the store will be “permanently closed” it is not, that is due to the fact that the corporation is retiring the old store number with the new store having a new number, the store will not be “permanently closed” and will reopen.

The Publix store along with the two adjacent stores facing east will be totally demolished and be rebuilt with a new larger structure which will be a new Publix Supermarket. The new store will be substantially larger measuring just under 52,000 sq ft, the original store was just over 40,000 sq ft.

The exact date of demolition as well as reopening are not known and will not be communicated by Publix until exact information is known.

Judging from similar Publix projects the new store construction will likely take nine to twelve months, it would be a reasonable guess to expect the new store to open late this year. By the way, this is the oldest Publix store in Collier County originally opening August 28, 1986.

Other area Publix rebuilds include the Naples Plaza store in 2012, Kings Lake Square, East Naples 2014, and Shops of Marco Island store 2020-2021.

The new store will not have a drive up pharmacy or liquor store.

Adjustments have been made by the management staff at the Naples Plaza store located at US41 and Golden Gate Parkway to accommodate the anticipated increase in customer traffic since it now remains the only Publix store now located in the City of Naples.

The Naples Plaza store leadership, anticipating a significant increase in business, has recently  added fifty additional grocery carts, relocated an estimated thirty percent of the Neopolitan Way staff to its payroll, and added more daily deliveries which increased product delivered to the store by about twenty percent.

We will continue to update you on any new information we receive regarding the status  of this project.