Village Plaza is undergoing a facelift, with an Aldi Supermarket expected to break ground soon on the property, which will likely have two other stores in the near future. A Wawa is also eyeing a corner of the same intersection making it, potentially, one of the busiest in the area with customers expected from not only Sun City Center but also surrounding communities. Kevin Brady photo.
Starting next week, the first signs of redevelopment will appear at the corner of U.S. 301 and Sun City Center Boulevard.
Signs announcing a new Aldi for the corner will go up next week, with construction expected to soon follow.
Village Plaza had been home to several longtime businesses such as Boggs Jewelry and a row of storefronts before occupants were told they would have to vacate the property earlier this year.
Wawa, a convenience store, has also submitted plans to open a store across the street from the new Aldi supermarket on the southeast corner of the intersection. Wawa has been aggressively courting the South County market, having opened a store in Riverview earlier this year.
The Aldi store, which will be golf-cart friendly, will occupy a part, but not all, of the three-acre property. Plans call for possibly two other businesses on the lot.
“The whole piece is a little bit more than three-and-a-half acres,” said Denny Pentecost of MQ Partners, a development company. “But there are two different ownership groups on the piece and I don’t want to confuse.”
With Aldi’s all but secured as the anchor store, that leaves about 1.5 acres on the southern edge of the lot.
“I have nothing concrete on [the remaining 1.5 acres] … but I have a lot of interest, and it may be a pick-and-choose who I want to put there,” Pentecost said.
Principals expect to have the final paperwork signed and sealed for Aldi within a week. “At that point in time, the corner will be under contract and a tenant in process,” said Pentecost. “We’ve been working diligently to get this thing taken care of and we’re down to the home stretch. So we’ll be able to formally put a sign up there saying ‘coming soon.’ I will be a happy man in a couple of weeks.”
Pentecost said, “You’ll have the Sun City Center customers, and we are going to make that place golf-cart friendly. You’ll have the Sun City Center customers coming in and then Wimauma, and there is a lot of development going in to Wimauma.”
The economic rebound from the recent recession is not only sprouting in South County. “There is building going on all the way down to North Port and Englewood — not quite over to Englewood but to North Port and Punta Gorda all the way up to Pasco County,” Pentecost said. “Pasco is going crazy as well.”
Several of the local businesses that called Village Plaza home have already moved into new headquarters. Boggs Jewelry has already held the Grand Reopening for its new location in the Publix shopping center across S.R. 674. Annette’s Beauty Salon is now located at 916 N. Pebble Beach Blvd. between Bay Services Locksmith and the laundromat. Ray’s Golf Cart Sales and Service, which moved to the plaza in 2009, already has a new home at 761 Cortaro Drive in Sun City Center.
