Publix ups the ante in Kentucky with 6th store

Publix Super Markets has raised its number of upcoming Kentucky locations to six.

The Lakeland, Florida-based grocer said Wednesday that it has signed a lease for a 55,701-square-foot Publix supermarket in Covington, sited in the Triple Crown Shopping Center at the southwest corner of Triple Crown Boulevard and Richwood Road. The location also will feature an adjacent Publix Liquors store selling beer, wine and spirits.

Plans call for the new Publix, the chain’s first for northern Kentucky, to open in 2025. That store would be Publix’s northernmost location and put the retailer in the greater Cincinnati market area, the hometown of The Kroger Co., the nation’s largest supermarket operator.

Publix has steadily added new locations for Kentucky—to be the Southeastern grocer’s eighth state—since announcing plans for its first store there in September 2021. This past July, Publix launched the “Hello, Kentucky” website to keep residents abreast of its slate of store openings in the state.

“While we are proud to continue our growth across the Bluegrass State and share the Publix difference with more Kentuckians, we do not currently have any other plans to share at this time,” a Publix spokesman said in an email on Thursday.

Publix broke ground in June 2022 for a 55,701-square-foot Publix supermarket at 2500 Terra Crossing Blvd. in the Terra Crossing Shopping Center in Louisville. Situated at the northwest corner of Terra Crossing Boulevard and Old Henry Road, the retailer's lead-off Kentucky will house a drive-thru pharmacy and neighbor a 3,200-square-foot Publix Liquors outlet, the first outside Florida.

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The company projected a 2023 fourth-quarter opening for its first Kentucky store but on Thursday said it hasn’t yet committed to an opening date. The Cincinnati Business Courier reported this week that the store is slated to open on Jan. 10.

Publix unveiled plans for a second Louisville supermarket in December 2021. To be situated at the northeast corner of Ballardsville and Brownsboro roads, the 55,701-square-foot store is expected to go into operation in the early part of 2024 and, like the other Kentucky locations, include a drive-thru pharmacy and an adjacent 3,200-square-foot Publix Liquors.

In June 2022, Publix also reported that it signed a lease for a third Kentucky store, in the city of Lexington. The 55,701-square-foot supermarket is set to be located at the northwest corner of Man O’ War Boulevard and Harrodsburg Road in the Fountains at Palomar, a mixed-used development due to open in the fourth quarter of 2024. The Publix store also will feature a drive-thru pharmacy and a Publix Liquors outlet.

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Publix reported in December 2022 that it acquired property for a third Louisville store at the northwest corner of Flat Rock Road and Shelbyville Road. Plans call for the 48,387-square-foot supermarket to open in the 2024 second quarter and include a pharmacy and an adjacent Publix Liquors.

And then this past March, Publix disclosed plans to open a second Lexington location, which would be its fifth for Kentucky. No opening timetable has yet been set for the 46,000-square-foot grocery store, to be at the southeast corner of Georgetown Road and Citation Boulevard.

Overall, Publix now operates 1,355 stores in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. Most recently, Publix had expanded its footprint to Virginia, the company’s seventh state, in July 2017 with the opening of a store in Glen Allen. That followed the grocer’s entry into North Carolina, its sixth state, in February 2014 with the opening of a store in Charlotte.