Construction will start next week on the Shoppes at Heritage Village shopping center in the southwest corner where Rogers Road meets Forestville Road, the shopping center that will be anchored by the ninth Publix in North Carolina. There is one in Cary and the other seven are in and near Charlotte.
Dan O’Neil, managing partner with Columbia Properties that is building the shopping center, said the Publix will have “the identical floor plan of the Cary store as well as most of the other locations Publix is doing in North Carolina.” That means 49,000 square feet in the grocery plus 22,500 square feet of additional retail plus three outparcels.
Kimberly Reynolds with Publix said Monday, “We do not yet have an opening date, but are planning for 2016.” She added, “We typically hire about one month or so out from opening. Management will be transfers or promotions from within; however, we expect to employ up to 150 associates with approximately more than 100 being local hires. Our store sizes vary, but around 49,000 square foot is an average store size. This store will have all of the traditional Publix offerings including a scratch bakery, full service meat and seafood, Publix Deli and fresh produce.”
The 19 acres were rezoned to conditional neighborhood business and the master plan approved last November, and Columbia Properties purchased the land from Franklin Village LLC in late March for $3.5 million.
There will be two full access driveways into the center, one each on Rogers Road and Forestville Road with one right-in, right-out on Forestville. In addition, there can be a full access driveway from Foundation Drive, the entrance to Heritage High School. There will be pylon signs for the shopping center and Publix at the full access driveways.
When asked in March if the reconstruction of the Rogers Road bridge over Smith Creek will complicate their construction plans, O’Neil said, “Unfortunately if we planned all of our projects around the planned schedule of the government and all of their last-minute delays we would never get anything done, so we just have to hope it doesn’t affect us too badly.” The Rogers Road bridge reconstruction is scheduled now to begin April 4, 2016, and be complete Aug. 16. The state Department of Transportation plans to widen Rogers Road at the same time to five full lanes between the bridge and the Forestville Road intersection. A timetable for that construction has not been released.
Publix celebrated its 85th birthday this spring. It was founded in 1930 by the late George W. Jenkins in Winter Haven, Florida, and has grown to be the largest employee-owned supermarket in the country with more than 1,100 stores in six states. “Mr. George’s dream was to open a store that was different — a store that operated on a set of values that everyone could feel when they walked through the door. Publix refers to these founding values as the Lessons of Mr. George,” Reynolds wrote in announcing the anniversary.
