The Publix supermarket chain will soon open its first GreenWise organic products store in Georgia at the new Sandy Plains MarketPlace, but an opening date has not been determined.
The store received a business license from the Cobb Community Development Agency earlier this month, but other steps need to take place before the opening process can be finalized, according Brenda Reid, a spokeswoman at the Publix Atlanta regional office.
She told East Cobb News that “we don’t set the opening date” until receiving a certificate of occupancy from the county. But she did say that “we’re pushing forward to be ready” for a tentative target date of April 15.
Reid said she could not confirm a report that the Florida-based grocer is opening another Publix at the intersection of Roswell Road and Johnson Ferry Road in East Cobb.
The Atlanta retail news site ToNeTo reported last week that a traditional Publix store is coming to the East Cobb Crossing Shopping Center, next to Dick’s Sporting Goods, in space formerly occupied by K-Mart.
Within the radius of that intersection is a Whole Foods Market as well as Sprouts and Trader Joe’s. The nearby Target store also has a grocery section.
Reid said that location “is not on my confirmed list,” meaning property that either has a signed lease or has been purchased. “I don’t have any more information.”
Publix operates stores in the Johnson Ferry corridor at the Woodlawn Point Shopping Center only 1.2 miles away, and at the Shallowford Corners Shopping Center, 3.5 miles away.
That corridor also includes two Kroger stores and a Wal-Mart store with a full grocery section. Lidl, a discount grocery retailer, is planning to occupy space at Woodlawn Square after The Fresh Market closed last fall.
Another Publix, at East Piedmont Road and Roswell Road, is 4.4 miles west of the new store, and a Walmart Grocery at Roswell Road and Old Canton Road is four miles away.
Other Publix locations in East Cobb include 2900 Delk Road (at Powers Ferry Road), 1860 Sandy Plains Road (at Scufflegrit Road) and 4750 Alabama Road (at Old Mountain Park Road).
GreenWise is a new concept for Publix, which has six such stores already in operation in Florida, South Carolina and Alabama. The East Cobb store is among the six being planned or under construction.
The GreenWise store will be located just across Sandy Plains Road from a Publix at the Highland Plaza Shopping Center, at the intersection of Shallowford Road.
Reid said that’s the oldest Publix in metro Atlanta, having opened in November 1992, and it’s “one of the more high-volume stores” among the 150 in the area (25 stores are in Cobb County alone).
GreenWise offers organic and natural products, including personal care items, as well as what Reid said will be a “large” area for prepared foods, including grab-and-go items.
There will be a selection of fresh meat cuts, including varieties of bacon cured on the premises.
The personal care items will include hair care, bath and beauty items, vitamins and supplements, aromatherapy and homeopathic products and first aid items.
Other things to note about the GreenWise concept, Reid said, is that the store will have a contemporary layout, and even the employees’ uniforms will look different from those who work at Publix.
Most of Sandy Plains MarketPlace (3460 Sandy Plains Road), located on the former site of Mountain View Elementary School, is still under construction. Jim ‘N Nicks Bar-B-Q has opened, as has a Synovus Bank branch. A Clean Juice store is slated to open in mid-March.
Other businesses include Hollywood Feed, an organic pet food store; First Watch, a breakfast-brunch-lunch eatery; MOD Pizza; Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar; Dogtopia; Banfield Pet Hospital; Diesel Barbershop; and Sandy Plains Dental Group.
Fuqua Development, which has been building the 73,000-square-foot shopping center, recently sold it for $43.8 million to Orkin & Company, an Atlanta-based real estate investment firm, according to the business publication BisNow Atlanta.
The report said the acquisition does not include a self-storage facility under construction that’s located next to the Mountain View Community Center.
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