Publix on track to open in May

Contributed Auburn Villager The first Auburn Publix is set to open in May.

A 54,000-square-foot Publix supermarket in south Auburn is on schedule to open in May, with an opening date not yet set for a second store on the north side.

A 54,000-square-foot Publix supermarket in south Auburn is on schedule to open in May, with an opening date not yet set for a second store on the north side.

"We thought we might open in April, but this weather hasn't done us any favors," said Brent Gladden of University Real Estate Group, which is developing the 12-acre site for the first store along with Shannon, Strobel and Weaver. Both companies have headquarters in Auburn.

The south-edge supermarket anchors the new Hamilton Place shopping center at the corner of Moore's Mill and Hamilton Road in south Auburn and is expected to give a boost to Ogletree Village, located at the same intersection, as well as a recently opened CVS drugstore. The nearly 80,000-square-foot center is about 75 percent leased, Gladden said.

Hamilton Place will also include a drycleaners, a nail salon, a tanning salon, a hair cutting boutique and a women's and children's clothing store, Gladden said. Johnny Brusco's, a local pizza franchise, also is opening a second location at the center, and Gladden said he is working with a "chicken finger concept" that might locate at Hamilton Place.

"We are working with several other restaurants and retailers, but the leases are not 100 percent complete," he said. "We've had great response from people wanting to lease space out there. Obviously the draw is that the intersection has a great demographic, and they want to be next to Publix because of the traffic the supermarket is going to bring."

Gladden said he hoped the Publix would attract some new retailers to the market, companies that had experienced success locating near a Publix in other cities.

Shannon, Strobel and Weaver is doing the site work, and Nearing Construction the vertical construction, Gladden said.

Charles Pick, the developer of the second Publix at the corner of East University and North College, could not be reached for comment. Megan McGowen with the city's economic development department said, however, that no opening date has been set yet.

The second Publix will an chor another shopping center, Cary Creek.

Each Publix will employ about 100 people, 40 percent of them full-time, said Brenda Reid, Publix media and community relations manager. The Lakeland, Fla.-based company, with about 80 supermarkets in Alabama, is employee owned, and Reid noted that all managers for new stores are promoted from within the ranks of existing employees.

Publix was No. 86 on Fortune Magazine's 2010 list of best companies in the country for which to work, climbing from No. 88 in 2009. One of the reasons, the magazine noted last year, is that Publix has never laid off employees during its 80 years in business, no matter how bad the recession.

"Owners never want to lay off other owners," the magazine pointed out, saying that nearly 6,000 of the company's employees have worked at Publix for 20 years or more.

In fact, Publix has spit in the face of the current economic downturn, opening 36 new stores in 2009 and hiring thousands of employees. The year before, Publix bought 49 stores closed by the Albertson's chain.

Publix also ranks No. 9 on Forbes' Magazine's list of top private companies.

"We hang our hat on the service we provide to our customers," Reid said. "We hire great people who are passionate about serving customers, and we have a tremendous training program."

The regional powerhouse operates some 1,000 stores in the Southeast, two-thirds of them in Florida, and boasted sales of some $24 billion in 2008. Other stores are located in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee, all served from the Atlanta division.

Auburn's location on the supply line between Atlanta and other Alabama locations made the decision to locate here easy, Reid said.

"Our trucks go through Auburn, and it just made good business sense," she said. "And we know the people who live in Auburn are familiar with us either from traveling in the state or in Florida. We get e-mails all the time asking us to come to Auburn."