Your trip to the grocery store could soon be getting a little shorter if you live in Golden Gate Estates. Construction on a new Publix supermarket could start as early as this week at the corner of Immokalee Road and Randall Boulevard.
"Right now it takes me about 20 to 25 minutes to get to the Publix," said Estates resident Thomas Stevenson. "The closest one to me is on Immokalee and Collier (Boulevard.)"
The new Publix will be part of the 10-acre Neighborhood Shoppes at Orangetree, and will likely include a CVS pharmacy and several smaller stores.
Christy Carr, who lives in the nearby subdivision of Orangetree at Valencia Lakes, said that trips to go food shopping can be an adventure.
"It's like 8 miles down Immokalee, and every time I go down that way, all the way to the WalMart, our ice cream always melts," Carr said. "So we have to take a cooler with ice in it to get it all the way back, because traffic is getting worse and worse."
The shopping center will be separated from her subdivision by an 8-foot concrete wall, but residents of that community will have access to it through a private gate.
"Oh, it'll be sweet," Carr said. "Then you can just get all your shopping done right around the corner."
If construction begins soon, and takes the expected 9 months to build, the new Publix could be open by November.
