Publix agrees to buy land for downtown West Palm Beach store

Publix has agreed on a sale price to buy city-owned land and build its first full-service supermarket in West Palm Beach’s downtown.

If the deal goes through, the popular grocery chain could open a store one block north of Clematis Street by the summer of 2028, a city official said.

City leaders said this week that they have negotiated an agreement to sell three city-owned lots to Publix for $3.5 million. The vacant lots are at the corner of Banyan Boulevard and North Sapodilla Avenue, just north of the police department headquarters.

“Publix Supermarkets has been desiring to relocate to a larger site in the downtown so they can have a more expanded full-service supermarket in the downtown,” Deputy City Attorney Nancy Urcheck told city commissioners at a Feb. 26 meeting.

The sale would have to be approved by commissioners, who are expected to review it at a meeting March 2.

If the sale is completed, Publix is "hoping for completion in June of 2028,” Urcheck said.

A Publix spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

10-year requirement to maintain store questioned

The sale price was based on two appraisals and then adjusted to take into account $677,000 in environmental mitigation that Publix would have to do to ready the land for building, Urcheck said

As a condition of the sale, Publix would be required to use the site as a supermarket for at least 10 years.

Commissioner Christy Fox questioned whether that requirement should be longer, given that the site may be one of the last undeveloped parcels in the downtown suitable for a grocery store.

“Should they decide in 10 years not to be a grocery store anymore, it would be pretty inconvenient for the future of the city,” she said.

Urcheck argued it was unlikely Publix would close an active store after 10 years unless there were significant problems.

“It would really take something significant for them to walk away from that in 10 years,” she said.

The three city-owned lots — 202, 204 and 206 N. Sapodilla Ave. — total about 1.7 acres in land and rights-of-way and are estimated for tax purposes at about $1.5 million in market value.

Related Ross, the city’s largest developer, owns most of the rest of the block where the Publix would be located — the 600 block of Banyan Boulevard.

A larger Publix store downtown has long been an objective of Related Ross.

Representatives for the company, owned by Palm Beach real estate mogul Stephen Ross, told The Palm Beach Post in March that they were working to bring the downtown a Publix nearly double the size of the one in CityPlace, whose 23,000-square-foot footprint is less than half a typical Publix store.

City commissioners voted in November to declare the land as surplus and authorize administrators to negotiate its sale.

Andrew Marra is a reporter at The Palm Beach Post. Reach him at [email protected].