Publix redeveloping Longboat's Avenue of the Flowers

After three years of speculation, Lakeland-based Publix Super Markets Inc. revealed plans for the aging and mostly empty Avenue of the Flowers plaza on Longboat Key. Publix submitted a preliminary application to the Longboat Key Planning, Zoning and Building Department.

The plans, detailed in a Bay Isles outline development plan amendment and a site plan review, call for tearing down the center. In its place, at 525 Bay Isles Parkway, Publix wants to develop a 49,533-square-foot Publix grocery store that will be connected to an 11,700-square-foot retail plaza with 360 nearby parking spaces. The plan also calls for a 14,528-square-foot CVS Pharmacy with 59 parking spaces and a stand-alone, 4,000-square-foot office/retail building in the northeastern corner of the property with another 24 parking spaces.

The rest of the 9.7-acre plaza will include walking trails, brick pavers, bicycle racks, a gazebo and more landscaping and trees.

The total redevelopment would feature 79,761 square feet of retail and office space, which is 20,000 square feet less than the current Town Plaza I.

The application also reveals that Publix is under contract with real estate agent/ investor Howard Rooks for Town Plaza II, a 1.52-acre site and plaza, which includes tenants Nosh-A-Rye and Your Fitness Instructor. The purchase, however, does not include the restaurant site Rooks owns that was formerly occupied by Mattison's Restaurant.

Rooks, who confirmed he is under contract to sell the property to Publix, declined to disclose the purchase price.

“It's going to be a fabulous center once it's complete,” Rooks says. “They are keeping a large chunk of the property as open space. I'm really excited about it, and the town's residents will be, too.”

Publix is also under contract to buy a 0.97-acre piece of property near Bay Isles Road, where its office/retail building will be located. Longboat Key-based Bay Isles Enclave Acquisition LLC owns the property.

Publix wants to close the shopping center, with the exception of CVS, after Easter of 2012 and re-open in late December 2012.

Publix purchased the plaza in September 2008 from Dead River Properties for $14 million.

Town Plaza I's current tenants include Prudential Palms Realty, Patchington, Antony V's Packaged Wines and Spirits, Nails of Longboat Key, CVS Pharmacy and White Sands Cleaners. Currently, the plaza is more than half-empty.

Reporting by Kurt Schultheis, correspondent