Publix opens Wesley Chapel store modeled after South Tampa prototype
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jan 25, 2024

Publix Super Markets Inc. has opened a store in Wesley Chapel modeled after a prototype that the grocer debuted in South Tampa.

Publix at Innovation Springs is 55,701 square feet and includes several of the same features as the Gandy Boulevard and Himes Avenue store, which Publix opened in March 2023.

The only other store in the Publix chain to be modeled after that prototype is a recently opened location in Louisville, Kentucky, Hannah Herring, a spokesperson for the grocer, told the Tampa Bay Business Journal. Other stores share some of the same features as those three locations, but no others are built on the same prototype.

Lakeland-based Publix operates more than 1,300 stores in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and the Carolinas.

“We are excited to open our doors today at Innovation Springs,” Herring said in a statement. “We look forward to introducing customers to an array of new offerings and providing them with the service and quality products they know and love.”

The prototype features a prominent deli island with Publix staples like Boar's Head meats and cheeses alongside an international selection of olives, antipasti, hummus and more than 200 specialty cheeses. There's also a mezzanine seating area and Pours, a bar that has coffee, beer, wine and kombucha on tap. The store includes an expanded wine selection and full-service seafood department as well as a drive-thru pharmacy.

Publix first test-drove many of those features with GreenWise Market, its specialty banner that it revived in 2018 before phasing out again in 2023.