Horizon West’s Hamlin neighborhood is on track to get a second Publix, with the Lakeland-based grocer moving ahead on plans for another supermarket less than a mile from its existing Hamlin Town Center store. The new location would double up Publix anchors in an area that has quickly filled in with new homes, shopping, and dining.
Publix has filed preliminary paperwork for a new Hamlin site, and the chain now operates 889 locations across Florida, according to the Orlando Business Journal. The filing is in an early review stage and would place the proposed supermarket just under a mile from the current Hamlin Town Center store.
The existing Publix, which anchors Hamlin Town Center, opened in 2017 as part of the project’s first wave of retail, per the West Orange Times & Observer. That town-center cluster also features a Cinepolis theater, a Walmart Supercenter, and a steadily expanding lineup of restaurants and outparcels serving the surrounding villages.
Horizon West Keeps Adding Rooftops
Developers and big-name retailers have zeroed in on Horizon West as new subdivisions deliver wave after wave of households to the market, and Hamlin has emerged as the main retail hub for those villages. The town-center master plan, paired with direct access to State Road 429, makes Hamlin a natural spot for more grocery capacity as population density rises along the corridor, according to Live Horizon West.
Why A Second Publix?
Real-estate pros will tell you that in fast-growing suburbs, two supermarkets sitting close together is not necessarily overkill. Shoppers make frequent trips, trade areas can be surprisingly tight, and a fresh batch of rooftops can support more than one full-size store if patterns show different customer flows. Location-intelligence and site-selection playbooks note that chains often pursue infill stores to reach overlooked households, keep competitors from slipping into the gap, and fine-tune delivery and pickup logistics. OnSpot lays out those kinds of site-selection principles.
What Happens Next
From here, any formal proposal has to run the local government gauntlet. Orange County requires a site-plan review and can kick projects to technical or advisory committees before building permits are issued, under the procedures spelled out in the Orange County Code of Ordinances. Timelines hinge on staff comments and any public-hearing requirements in the code.
For now, the filing is one more signal that grocers and other retailers are betting big on Horizon West’s growth. County records and local coverage should show the next steps as the application moves through review.
