What's in store for residents?

Ripe, fresh strawberries cost $1.29 for two pints.

Your choice of bread — Italian or rye — was available for 49 cents per loaf. And the Longboat Key Publix — like Publix stores everywhere — was open Monday through Saturday and closed on Sunday.

Yep, times have changed since Wednesday, June 4, 1980, when then-Longboat Key Mayor Claire Bell cut the ribbon in a 9 a.m. ceremony that celebrated the opening of Publix in what was then the new Bay Isles Shopping Center. One week later, Eckerd Drug Co. opened in the center.

According to Longbeach Village resident Bill Carman, who moved in 1969 to Longboat Key, Publix’s arrival was big news back then.

“People said, ‘We have a Publix now, so we don’t have to leave the Key,’” Carman said.

Publix was the first supermarket on the island but not the first grocery store. According to Carman, the island was home to two grocery stores — the Buttonwood Shopping Center and the Foodway market — when Publix arrived. Now, more than 31 years later, Avenue of the Flowers Acquisition Co., a Publix Super Markets Inc. entity, has submitted a pre-application that would redevelop the shopping center.

The current plans call for the supermarket to be torn down after Easter in 2012 and re-open in December 2012.

The good news is, residents won’t have to survive eight months without a pharmacy. The plan states that CVS would remain open in its existing space until the new site is developed.

But the bad news is this: For the first time in more than a half-century, Longboaters will find themselves without a grocery store.

Publix primer
Publix broke ground for its Longboat Key store in June 1979. Town officials, along with officials from Arvida Corp. — the company that developed much of the mid- and southern Key — donned hard hats and held shovels for a photo-op.

According to Ralph Hunter’s “From Calusas to Condominiums,” Arvida’s strategy was to provide the town with a luxury shopping center — one that would include not just a Publix as an anchor but also a post office, land for banks, donated land for Town Hall and a library.

In 1983, the Portland, Maine,-based Dead River Properties Inc. purchased the plaza for $5 million. Later, in 2008, Dead River Properties sold the plaza to Publix Super Markets Inc.

But the plaza has aged, and more than half of its spaces are currently vacant. The application submitted by Publix to the town suggested that the new shopping center could make the plaza a more valuable asset to the island.

“The new design complements the quality found on Longboat Key and will encourage continued reinvestment and redevelopment of property in the town for years to come,” it states.

In the bag?
Most residents contacted by the Longboat Observer say that they were happy to learn of Publix’s plans for redevelopment — even if, as a result, they’ll have to temporarily drive to the mainland for groceries.

Resident John Wild said that he will most likely head north from his mid-Key home for groceries, possibly to the Publix or Winn-Dixie stores on Cortez Road, in Bradenton. He suggested that in the meantime, CVS could offer a few more food-staple items for convenience.

North-Key resident Jinny Johnson estimated that she does approximately 50% of her grocery shopping at the Longboat Key Publix. For the eight months of potential construction, she said she will likely drive to the Publix on Holmes Beach, where she does the remainder of her shopping — while she anticipates the renovated Publix.

“We’re delighted,” she said of the plan. “We think that it’s going to be so wonderful.”

Carman, who also lives in at the north end of the island, said that he thinks people can adjust to the inconvenience. Carman, who owned Carman’s Shoes & Handbags on St. Armands Circle, said that in the early days, the Avenue of the Flowers plaza looked promising enough that he considered opening a shoe store there.

“It’s nice that they’re developing the property,” he said.

Stuart Scheyer, who recently praised the proposal in a letter to the Longboat Observer, said that he would most likely drive to the new Publix on U.S. 41 in Sarasota for groceries. He summed up his thoughts on the proposal with an adage his father often repeated:

“It’s the price we pay for living a privileged life,” Scheyer said.

Contact Robin Hartill at [email protected].

Roadmap
According to Publix’s website, the following stores are the closest Publix locations to Longboat Key in Bradenton, Sarasota and Holmes Beach:
Bradenton: 4621 Cortez Road W.
Holmes Beach: 3900 E. Bay Drive
Sarasota: 1044 N. Tamiami Trail