Land deal closes for new Publix

Lawyers for Publix Super Markets Inc. closed today on the purchase of the former Sarasota Herald-Tribune building at Tamiami Trail and Bay Street, a transaction that has taken more than a year to complete. The cost was $6.3 million.

A new Publix store will open on that site next year. It will be a two-story, 54,000-square-foot building.

When that supermarket opens, the Publix store at Ringling Boulevard and Lime Avenue will close it doors. That store, which opened  in 1954, is the oldest operating Publix in the entire chain.

Contact Robin Roy at [email protected].