The 48,000-square-foot Publix supermarket that Statesboro and Bulloch County officials helped break ground for Wednesday at Old Register Road and Tormenta Way should open in October 2022, said Bob Peck, Watkins Real Estate Group’s vice president of Development.

“We’re in for permitting right now. …,” Peck said after the ceremony. “October 2022, it’s actually written in the lease.”

Sixteen months to build is a longer timeframe than originally suggested. He noted some continued challenges for developers in the emerging post-pandemic economy, such as banks requiring a signed contract with a builder before closing on construction loans.

Heart of the planned 66,000-square-foot Eagles Corner Shopping Center, the supermarket will be leased to Lakeland, Florida-based Publix and built to the company’s specifications. Watkins will lease five smaller shops and two freestanding buildings in the shopping center to other businesses and is also marketing three outparcels.

A nail salon and a hair salon are set to occupy two of the shop spaces. Peck said his company is in advanced discussions for three restaurants in the shopping center and has a contract with a restaurant developer for one of the outparcels. But none were ready to be announced by name.

Jobs – in late 2022

The Publix store alone will create 150 to 200 jobs, including full-time, part-time and managerial positions, said Jay Wilcox, Publix Supermarkets district manager.

“In Publix we promote from within, so all of our managers in some aspects are probably already with Publix, probably in the Pooler area, Savannah area, but we’re looking forward to a lot of brand-new jobs in this area,” Wilcox said. “Typically about three months out from opening is when we tend to start hiring, so we’re a little ways away from that, but we’re excited and looking forward to it.”

Mezzanine and balcony

This store will be a relatively new type for Publix, with a mezzanine inside and balcony extending outside.

“In the  very front  where the registers are there’s actually stairwells or an  elevator to  take you upstairs  to a café area where you can sit down and get WiFi, have lunch and just hang out for a little bit, looking out over the store,” Wilcox said.

A similar Publix store opened in Bluffton, South Carolina in March with an interior mezzanine but without the balcony outside. The new Statesboro store will include a pharmacy, floral department and deli.

Peck, Wilcox and JGR Development LLC lead investor Darin Van Tassell, who is also president of the South Georgia Tormenta FC soccer franchise, picked up shovels painted Publix green to turn some dirt in the hot late-afternoon sunshine. So did about a dozen other people.

About 26 months earlier, Van Tassell had announced that a Publix store would be coming to this location. That was during another ceremonial groundbreaking, for the entire Old Register Road Tax Allocation District, or TAD, and specifically the planned Tormenta Stadium.

‘Had to go first’

The stadium remains unbuilt at this point, but Van Tassell said the Publix shopping center was “the catalyst” for the rest of the development.

“This one had to go first, and today it did. …,” he said after Wednesday’s ceremony.  “I think in the next 30 to 45 days the  plan and the construction will  start happening simultaneously.”

Van Tassell and the other JGR investors convinced Statesboro’s mayor and council to create the Old Register TAD, encompassing about 225 acres, in 2018. The city government invoked the Georgia Redevelopment Powers Act to make this possible, dedicating property tax revenue gains from growth within the tract after Dec. 31, 2018, to internal infrastructure improvements, including street construction.

A commitment for a “grocery store” to be built there was required under an August 2018 agreement with the Bulloch County commissioners and the Board of Education that brought a portion of their anticipated revenue growth into the TAD fund.

Then the city borrowed $4.75 million and used it to reimburse the TAD investors for the construction of Tormenta Way and the widening of Old Register Road to multiple lanes through the TAD area. These became city streets.

Now, the city is overseeing another road project that will connect with the TAD development but is not part of the district and not funded by the city or the developers. Also being carried out by Mill Creek Construction, the same contractor that did the road work within the TAD, the extension of Akins Boulevard beyond Veterans Memorial Parkway is funded 70% by a Georgia Department of Transportation grant and 30% by Georgia Southern University.

Mill Creek Construction is also building a detention pond for rainwater draining from the shopping center site. That should be complete in less than  two  weeks, and the Akins Extension first phase, connecting to Tormenta Way, should be finished in July, said Matthew Woodrum, one  of the  owners of Mill Creek Construction.

The street network and the assignment of a bus stop from Georgia Southern’s student bus service to the shopping center area were conditions Publix required for locating in the TAD.

20-year-return

 A Publix supermarket previously operated in Statesboro for a few years in the late 1990s. Located in the University Commons shopping center on Northside Drive East, it closed more than 20 years ago.

Efforts to bring the supermarket chain back to Statesboro recurred, off and on again, for years. At least two other sites were seriously considered.

“We’ve tried forever, we’ve been wanting to for years, and we’re extremely excited to be back,” Wilcox said. “It’s been about a 20-year hiatus that we’ve been out of here, and we’re ready to get back and start serving this community.”

Van Tassell credited Benjy Thompson, CEO of the Development Authority of Bulloch County, with putting the JGR investors in touch with Watkins Real Estate Group over the idea of building a Publix at this site. The development authority mainly promotes industrial development, but a new supermarket and other projects proposed for the TAD could also help in that regard, Thompson said in an interview.

“A lot of what entices any investment in the community are the kinds of amenities you have in the community, what’s available to the people who live and work here, so having a Publix in Statesboro is, I think, going  to give us a higher profile in terms of the people with money and investment  opportunities from outside the community looking in,” he said.

Mayor Jonathan McCollar, Bulloch County commissioners Chairman Roy Thompson and leaders of the Statesboro-Bulloch Chamber of Commerce also made remarks welcoming Publix back.