Publix Supermarkets plans to build a grocery store and shopping center at the corner of Indrio Road and Emerson Avenue, two miles east of Interstate 95, in northeastern St. Lucie County.
The new Publix will be strategically located between the chain’s stores on Oslo Road in Vero Beach and Okeechobee Road/State Road 70 in Fort Pierce.
St. Lucie County commissioners approved the plans on Aug. 13 and welcomed the supermarket, which was first proposed for the 18-acre pasture in the early-2000s.
“I’m excited that it’s here,” said Commissioner Cathy Townsend. “I think the people in the North County are excited that it’s coming.”
Publix is building a 48,387-square-foot grocery store, a 6,000-square-foot ancillary retail building and a 4,500-square-foot fast food restaurant on 13 acres on Indrio Road.
Plans also call for five stores to be built on a five-acre parcel on Emerson Avenue in the future.
Plans for a 185,338-square-foot shopping center on the property were rejected by commissioners in April 2005, county records show.
Glassman Holdings LLC sold the property to APA Emerson @ Indrio LLC for $3.8 million in January 2006. Space Coast Credit Union acquired the site via a corrective deed in lieu of foreclosure from APA Emerson in January 2014, county records show.
The Publix site is in the 28-square-mile Towns, Villages and Countryside planning area in St. Lucie County’s northeastern corner, so more complex development rules applied, said Cara Wood, a county planning consultant.
Townsend and Commissioner Frannie Hutchinson said the difficulty Publix had navigating the approval process in the past year showed the planning area rules adopted in May 2006 needed to be simplified.
“When the TVC was done a long time ago, I’ll be honest, I did not vote for it because it is such a strenuous planning process for any development to go through on virgin land,” Hutchinson said.
