Hollywood is another step closer to landing a rare Publix grocery store with a boat dock.
The Hollywood Planning & Development Board approved plans and modifications for a 30,000-square-foot supermarket at 3100 South Ocean Drive during the board’s meeting Tuesday. The store still needs approval from the city commission.
It would be the second Publix with a boat dock in Florida, with one already on the west coast.
The board agreed to modifications to the building’s plans, including approving the landowner’s requests for a reduction of parking spaces from 119 to 85 spaces, and reducing parking spaces’ length by a foot, to 18 feet. The board approved staffers’ requests, including mandating a monitor for the parking garage.
The first two levels of the store would serve as parking, with the supermarket on the third story. The building will include an elevator to access the store. Publix will include a pharmacy and will be open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., Publix’s typical hours.
The store is smaller than the typical 54,000-square-foot suburban Publix model, representatives of the landlord told the board. The landowner is a company managed by Albert Banalloun, co-founder and principal of Benher Capital Partners and founder of Transamerican Development, both based in Miami Beach. He paid about $5 million for the land in September 2019.
His quest for the so-called “Publix on the Beach” has included at least one lawsuit so far. As a result of that lawsuit, against a company that previously owned the land and no longer exists, Banalloun received approval from Broward County Circuit Judge Martin Bidwilll in May to ignore setback rules enacted for the property in the 1950s.
The store would be built as part of the second phase of the Ocean Palms planned development, which includes the 38-story, 250-unit condo tower Ocean Palms, built in 2006 at 3101 South Ocean Drive. Residents have included former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders player Warren Sapp. Units for sale range from $750,000 for a two-bedroom to $7 million for a five-bedroom unit, according to the tower’s website.
Some neighbors of the incoming Publix spoke against the store at the meeting, saying they are concerned about additional noise and traffic from delivery trucks, and shoppers and beachgoers using the store’s parking garage.
The parking garage will be outfitted with an alarm system to alert store managers when a space is occupied for too long to expose drivers using the garage to go to the beach, said Randy Holihan, principal of Brandon Partners and speaking on behalf of Publix.
The parking garage will also be closed at night, and trucks have been told to have alarms turned off when reversing on site, Holihan said.
Right now, a Walmart Supercenter, Winn-Dixie and another Publix are about a mile away.
Covid-19 hasn’t exactly been kind to grocery store foot traffic. Many supermarket chains have seen their foot traffic decline nationwide, and only three — Albertsons, Winn-Dixie and Meijer — saw increases in foot traffic, according to one report.
Still, Publix continues to grow its footprint. In April, Publix paid $23 million for its new store in Coral Gables. That same month, the Publix-anchored Village Square Shopping Center in Pembroke Pines scored a $14 refinancing loan.