As eastward growth of the master-planned community Lakewood Ranch continues to grow, Publix plans to build its fifth location within it. Publix plans to build its 55,400-square-foot supermarket on about 27 acres at the northeast corner of University Parkway and Lorraine Road. The application for the store has been submitted by ZNS Engineering of Bradenton on behalf of North American Properties, and Manatee County staff have until February 15th to complete their comments on the application.
As of now, all supermarkets located within Lakewood Ranch are Publix stores. Publix has a total of 1,138 store locations, with 774 of them being in Florida. It is the largest employee-owned grocery chain in the United states. According to Publix's website, sales in 2015 were estimated at $32.4 billion.
