The mystery about what grocery store might be coming to The Grove at Wesley Chapel has brewed for more than a year, since it was first teased on social media, but the answer finally may be close to being unveiled.
According to records filed with Pasco County, potential unnamed developers will meet with county planners Oct. 18 in a pre-application meeting.
The preliminary plan filed with the county reveals a 147,000-sq.-ft. retail building, with nearly 500 parking spots located on the parcel of land just south of The Grove’s main property, right across Pink Flamingo Ln. from Cost Plus World Market.
The bad news — if that is the size of the building, you can likely rule out any of the trendy and hip grocery store ideas bandied about online. The square footage of the proposed building is more than twice what you would find at any Publix, Sprouts, Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s.
If The Grove still plans on adding a grocery store component to its massive redevelopment, then we are conjecturing that all signs seem to point to a Super Target, a combo of a regular Target store that sells the usual clothing and other household items, combined with a full-size grocery store.
According to Target.com, the average Target is roughly 130,000 square feet, with some ranging to over 200,000 square feet.
However, there already is another Super Target in Wesley Chapel, located at the corner of County Line Rd. and Bruce B. Downs Blvd., although proximity to their other stores doesn’t stop big names like Publix, Walmart or Starbucks. And, with the S.R. 54 corridor the future home of thousands of new homes and apartments, there would be still be enough of a second Super Target to go around.
According to The Grove, nothing has been signed with any grocer, so we’ll have to wait and see.
If the grocery store plans have been scrapped entirely — we don’t think they have — than your guess to what the large retail building might be is as good as ours.
R.I.P. to the Trader Joe’s Brigade.
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