Publix announces first Lexington store: Details on where and when it’s coming
Publix is coming to Lexington.
The Florida-based grocery chain announced Thursday morning that its Central Kentucky location will be at the Fountains at Palomar.
The shopping center at the corner of Harrodsburg Road and Man O’ War Boulevard will have a 55,701-square-foot store with a drive-thru pharmacy and an adjacent 3,200-square-foot liquor store.
This will be the first Lexington location and the third Publix location in Kentucky, which already has Cincinnati-based Kroger, Walmart, Meijer, Aldi and several other major chains. The Lexington Publix will be directly across Man O’ War from an existing Walmart Neighborhood Market.
Executives on Thursday morning broke ground in Louisville for the first Kentucky store, expected to open in late 2023. A second Louisville store also has been announced and is expected to open in early 2024.
The Lexington store is expected to open in late 2024, according to the company. A major development plan filed with the city shows a retail store at 3855 Fountainblue Lane.
Fountains at Palomar is a new retail center that already includes Papi’s Mexican Restaurant, Jersey Mike’s, Orange Theory Fitness, Limestone Bank, Results Physiotherapy and Nail Bar at Fountains.
The developers of the shopping center, the Greer and the Webb companies, said that they are pleased.
“The announcement from Publix that they are coming to Lexington to anchor our Fountains Shopping Center will prove to be yet another game changer for our city,” they said in a joint statement. “To say that the Greers and the Webbs are excited about their decision would be an understatement. Publix is renowned throughout the south for its commitment to superb quality and service for its customers and hopefully this will be the first of many more stores for them in our state and region.”
Publix also has been rumored to be considering a planned new development near Brannon Crossing between Nicholasville and Lexington. The company has not commented on that location, which will come before city officials in Nicholasville at 7 p.m. on June 27.
In April, a Nicholasville Realtor created a social media storm when he posted that Publix was coming to a property on US 27 across from the existing shopping center.
Publix is the largest employee-owned company in the U.S. and has almost 1,300 stores in seven states across the South.
“It’s an exciting day for Publix Super Markets as we break ground in our eighth state,” said Publix CEO Todd Jones in a statement. “When our founder, George Jenkins, opened the first Publix store, he wanted to create a better grocery store — one that kept associates and customers top of mind. More than 90 years later, we’ve kept true to our values, including supporting the communities in which we live and work. We look forward to sharing the Publix difference with Kentuckians.”
On Thursday the company also donated 40,000 pounds of produce to Dare to Care, a Feeding America member food bank in Louisville.
This story was originally published June 23, 2022 at 10:59 AM.
