While Publix Super Markets Inc. says it cannot comment about a tenant without a signed lease, there doesn’t seem to be much question that its GreenWise Market organic and natural foods store is in review for the St. Johns County Nocatee Town Center East.
St. Johns County mail and email show that a “Greenwise Cafe” is part of the project.
A June 11 letter to the St. Johns County Zoning Department from Miami-based law firm GreenspoonMarder said it represents Publix Super Markets Inc. and its client asked the firm to obtain information about a license for a liquor package store at northeast Crosswater Parkway and Nocatee Village Drive.
An email from GreenspoonMarder LLP on June 19 to a county planner clarified the use verification for the property. Instead of a liquor store, the email said it was “a Greenwise Cafe for on-premise consumption of beer and wine.”
On June 21, the county sent a letter “RE Zoning Confirmation Letter Request” for the “Greenwise Cafe Beer & Wine Sales.”
It said the proposed use for a cafe with beer and wine sales in conjunction with food sales is an allowed use within the Nocatee planned unit development.
Nocatee Town Center East is planned on 8.26 acres along Crosswater Parkway that would be anchored by a 25,098-square-foot grocery store, which fits the size of a GreenWise Market by Publix.
That is the chain’s organic and natural foods brand whose new stores are about 25,000 to 28,000 square feet, about half the size of the traditional Publix stores.