Underground parking to be part of Lexington’s third Publix grocery store
Publix announced on Thursday that they plan to bring a grocery store back to the Romany Road / Chevy Chase area.
The Florida-based chain has executed a lease on the northwest quadrant of Romany Road and Duke Road, it said in a release.
It will be the third Lexington location of the popular grocery store chain.
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They plan to open a new 37,740-square-foot store and employ about 140.
The existing 26,000-square-foot building will be demolished and Publix will add two levels of underground parking, according to a company spokesman.
No time frame for opening has yet been set, according to the news release.
“We are thrilled to expand our footprint in Kentucky with a third location in Lexington and now seventh location in the Bluegrass state,” according to the news release. “We look forward to bringing the Publix experience to our new customers soon.”
Lee Greer, president of Greer Companies which owns the land with Webb Companies, said he believes Publix’s goal is to have a pharmacy and liquor store component, but that’s “to be determined.”
Publix already has announced plans to open its first Lexington location at the new Fountains of Palomar shopping center at the corner of Harrodsburg and Man o’ War.
A second store has been announced for Citation Point, a new shopping center coming to the Citation Boulevard and Georgetown Road area.
The company is scheduled to open its first Kentucky location Louisville on Jan. 10.
Plans to replace Romany Road Kroger
The spot at 344 Romany Rd, which had been a Kroger and before that another grocery for years, has been owned by Webb Companies and Greer Companies since 2019.
Greer said they have received positive feedback since news of the incoming Publix surfaced. He said that the company had heard from neighbors that they wanted a grocery store at the site.
“In all our years, I don’t think we’ve ever had a project with such excitement,” Greer said.
“We’ve had this site secured for several years and have been working to get something exciting. It kind of astonished us that we were able to get such a high-quality grocery store on such a historic piece of ground.”
Various entities had been seeking a way to bring a grocery store back to Chevy Chase, one of the city’s most affluent areas for some time.
The Kroger neighborhood store on Romany closed in 2015. For a time, independent grocers Laurel Grocers planned to establish a store there but the plans fell through and the building was left gutted and open to the elements until the city ordered it either to be demolished or repaired in October 2018.
In November 2020, George Griffin, a longtime grocer and grandson of Laurel Grocery co-founder announced plans to open The Markets on Romany with a bar and restaurant on top of the refurbished store. He planned to open it in late 2021 but never received planning and zoning approval for variances sought.
