Publix Super Markets buys Merchants Crossing

BUYER: Publix Super Markets Inc., Lakeland
SELLER: Inland American Englewood Merchants LLC
PROPERTY: 1500 Placida Road and 1675 S. McCall Road, Englewood
PRICE: $17.9 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $14 million, June 2002

PLANS, DESCRIPTION:
Lakeland-based grocery group Publix Super Markets Inc. purchased the 213,739-square-foot Merchants Crossing shopping center for $17.9 million.

The price equated to $84 per square foot. That figure is lower than the two-year average price per square foot for retail space ($144) in Southwest Florida, according to the CoStar Group.

The 24-year-old shopping center at the corner of Placida and McCall roads is anchored by a more than 50,000-square-foot Publix grocery store. It also features a Bealls department store and Office Depot.

“We are approached on a regular basis to buy sites where we have stores,” says Brian West, a spokesman for Publix. “Sometimes we also have a right of first refusal. We evaluate the property and if we decide it makes good business sense we make the purchase.”

He says the grocery store group owns roughly 20% of the shopping centers or freestanding locations where it has stores. Publix manages some of the real estate itself and outsources the remainder to property management firms.