WEST PALM BEACH — Publix agreed to operate a new full-service grocery store downtown for at least 15 years as city commissioners preliminarily approved selling the company land to build its new supermarket.
Commissioners gave their initial OK March 2 to selling about 0.8 acres of vacant downtown land to the popular Florida grocery chain for what would be the only full-service grocery in downtown West Palm Beach.
Publix would combine three small city-owned lots with land owned by the developer Related Ross on the 600 block of Banyan Boulevard to build the new store and parking facilities.
The company originally negotiated a requirement to use the land as a grocery store for at least 10 years. But after Commissioner Christy Fox last week questioned why the requirement was so short, the grocer agreed to up it to a 15-year commitment, a city attorney said.
“They believe they’ll be here much longer than that,” Deputy City Attorney Nancy Urcheck told commissioners. “As long as the downtown needs a supermarket, they’ll commit to a 15-year use restriction.”
City administrators and Publix negotiated the $3.5 million sale price after two appraisals assigned wildly different values to the land, a fact that troubled some commissioners.
An appraisal ordered by the city found the land’s market value was $5.4 million after the cost of environmental mitigation was taken into consideration, while an appraisal ordered by Publix estimated the value at $2.9 million, city officials said.
City administrators then agreed to sell Publix the land at 85% of the average of the two appraised values, the minimum price permitted by city policy.
West Palm Beach commissioners question how sale price was calculated
Commissioners pressed Urcheck on why there was such a disparity between the two appraisals.
“It’s such a difference,” Commissioner Cathleen Ward said. “Do we have an explanation as to why there’s millions of dollars of difference?”
Urcheck said she had no explanation “other than one appraisal was done by the buyer and the other appraisal was done by the seller.”
Related Ross, the city’s largest developer, in December acquired a 3-acre lot on the same block for $7.5 million.
Related Ross declined to say when it intends to transfer its land on the 600 block of Banyan to Publix, or whether the land will be sold to the company or leased. A larger Publix downtown has long been a priority for the company.
“We are very supportive of Publix building a state-of-the-art full-service grocery store in downtown West Palm Beach,” Related Vice Chairman Eric Silagy said in a statement.
Fox, whose district includes the city center, said the arrival of a larger Publix would be a big boost for people who live and work downtown.
Publix operates a smaller store in CityPlace, but she pointed out it lacks many of the products and services of a full-service store.
“Right now I’m just very excited that we have this Publix moving forward,” she said.
Urcheck said Publix plans to keep its CityPlace store open until the new store is complete. Construction is expected to be finished by June 2028.
The sale requires a second commission vote before becoming official.
Andrew Marra is a reporter at The Palm Beach Post. Reach him at amarra@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Publix commits to at least 15 years in new downtown West Palm location
Reporting by Andrew Marra, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
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