Englewood shoppers can finally return to a familiar parking lot on Nov. 5, when the rebuilt Publix at Merchant's Crossing is scheduled to open its doors at 7 a.m. The supermarket has been closed for about 14 months while crews tore down the old building and replaced it with a larger store at the same site.
The reopening comes after the original Merchant's Crossing Publix, which first opened in 1990, closed permanently on Sept. 7, 2025, according to the Englewood Sun. Company officials had filed demolition and building permits with Charlotte County back in 2023, and the project ultimately called for complete demolition of the old store along with a full rebuild and a reconfigured parking lot, as reported by YourSun.com.
The new store, now designated Store #2091, will welcome shoppers at 1500 Placida Rd Suite C, according to the Englewood Review. The Englewood Sun puts the new building's floor area at 54,964 square feet.
What Shoppers Will Find Inside
Beyond the larger footprint, the rebuilt store includes a full-service pharmacy and a deli and bakery with a customer seating area, the station's report notes. Englewood Review adds that the new Publix comes with a pharmacy and a brand-new liquor store next door.
The timeline for this kind of overhaul isn't unusual for Publix. A comparable rebuild at Venice Village Shoppes took 15 months from demolition to reopening, running from February 2021 through May 2022, per the same account from YourSun.com. Englewood's project, which stretched from a 2023 permit filing to a 2025 closure and a Nov. 5 reopening, has followed a similarly extended arc.
Part of a Statewide Grocery Building Boom
Englewood's new Publix lands amid a broader wave of grocery expansion across Florida. The chain is opening seven locations in the coming weeks across Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina and South Carolina, according to the Herald-Tribune. A new 50,325-square-foot Publix already opened in West Bradenton on Oct. 22 with expanded bakery and deli departments, pickup and delivery options, a drive-through pharmacy and an adjacent liquor store, the Herald-Tribune reported. Another Publix of the same size was scheduled to open in Apollo Beach on Aug. 13, also with a drive-through pharmacy and adjacent liquor store planned, per the same outlet.
Aldi is moving just as fast. The discount grocer is opening five new stores across Florida, with two scheduled for Oct. 29 and three for Nov. 12, 2026, which will push its statewide total to 355 locations, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. The German-owned chain has opened roughly 60 new Florida locations so far in 2026, on top of 60 in 2025, the paper reports. The Englewood store scheduled to reopen on Nov. 5 is the rebuilt Publix at Merchant's Crossing, not an Aldi.
Other chains are chasing the same growth. Sprouts Farmers Market has plans to open more Florida stores, according to the Herald-Tribune, while Trader Joe's has three new Florida stores listed as coming soon, with others in the works, the outlet reported.
More Change Coming to Englewood's Shopping Scene
Merchant's Crossing isn't the only retail shakeup in town. Two new Aldi stores are set to open in Englewood on Nov. 19 — one at Palm Plaza across Placida Road, the other at State Road 776 and Sunnybrook Boulevard — both replacing former Winn-Dixie locations, according to Englewood Sun reporting. Separately, a former Kmart building that had most recently housed an antique mall was demolished earlier in October 2026 to make way for a Walmart Neighborhood Market planned for 1871 Englewood Road in the Lemon Bay Shopping Center.
Together, the openings mark a significant reshuffling of where Englewood residents do their grocery shopping, with Publix's return to Merchant's Crossing standing as the most anticipated piece after the site went without its Publix for about 14 months.
