When in need of groceries, West Boca resident Lisa Hindin will soon have even more choices when it comes to supermarkets. The number of grocery stores near her home recently rose to five. And if that’s not enough, two more stores are expected to open in the near future.
As South Florida’s population grows, more and more communities have been attracting clusters of supermarkets. The West Boca region — where hundreds of new homes are planned, and where a new ER also is currently being built — now has become the latest to experience a supermarket boom.
Consider:
— Sprouts, at 9831 Glades Road, opened in West Boca in August last year.
— Demolition began in April to make way for a new Publix at The Greens shopping center, at 19595 S. State Road 7. In recent days, workers there have been busy at its construction zone.
— A new Whole Foods is expected to eventually open at Uptown Boca, a shopping destination that’s a short distance off Glades Road, east of U.S. 441.
Hindin is a resident of The Oaks, a neighborhood along U.S. 441, which is walking distance from a Publix at The Reserve at Boca Raton. “I do the bulk of my regular shopping in Publix because it’s so convenient,” she said. “But when I need more specialty items, there’s an abundance of places to go to right in West Boca.”
Also not far from her are a Doris Italian Market & Bakery, at 9101 Lakeridge Blvd. — which Hindin said she’ll go to if she’s cooking a “great Italian dinner” — a Fresh Market at 20409 State Road 7, as well another Publix near Glades Road and U.S. 441. And driving farther south, there’s the West Boca Aldi, as well as supermarkets situated within Target and Walmart.
But decision paralysis doesn’t plague Hindin. “It’s really one of the things that I find that we’re very lucky in because literally right across the street from where I live is a Publix,” she said.
Opening another Publix
There are more than 10 Publix supermarkets in the greater Boca Raton area, and soon enough, Hindin will have yet another Publix in her area.
The new West Boca Publix is expected to open in the first part of 2025, said Jessica Fernandez, who is with Centre-Line Real Estate Services, which is behind tenants at The Greens.
The center is situated west of U.S. 441 and near several residential communities. And it’ll also one day be a store available for residents of GL Homes’ Lotus Edge, coming some time in the next few years.
There are many signs of growth. GL Homes’ third Lotus community will feature between 650 to 700 single-family homes. Last year, passers-by took notice of the construction equipment that was clearing the 260-acre parcel to prepare it for all the new homes.
And workers also have been busy building a new Baptist Health Emergency Care center in West Boca’s Mission Bay Plaza.
That area near U.S. 441 appears increasingly attractive to developers of homes and grocery stores alike.
“The number of rooftops,” or households, is certainly a factor for grocery stores when deciding where to plant, said Evan Rosenblatt, the senior vice president of construction and development at PEBB Enterprises, the company behind projects such as Boca Raton’s Restaurant Row.
Another such supermarket cluster can be spotted in Delray Beach, where four supermarket chains — Trader Joe’s, Publix, Whole Foods Market and The Fresh Market — all are situated within a one-mile radius by Linton Boulevard and Federal Highway. And it drew customers’ attention in recent years when Aldi announced it would be the fifth store to open by there.
Supermarket chains tend to consider the demographics and income of an area when choosing locations, Rosenblatt said.
And West Boca “has definitely got a large population,” he said.
Some stores may be in the business of trying to be, or continuing to be, a place to shop for everyone at any time, which may be why so many locations proliferate in the greater Boca area. But other supermarkets may have more target audiences.
“The Fresh Markets, the Whole Foods, especially the Trader Joe’s, they have a more of a niche that they’re looking for,” Rosenblatt said.
The Whole Foods Market opening in West Boca would be the second Whole Food Market in the Boca area. The first is situated along Glades Road directly east of I-95.
The Whole Foods Market in east Boca Raton, in the University Commons shopping mall, might be too out of the way for those in West Boca, said Brian Schmier, the developer and owner of Uptown Boca. In an effort to become more of an “everyday grocer,” Schmier said he believes the supermarket, known for its organic and health-conscious products, may have wanted to capture the West Boca market, hence the new location.
When she’s not shopping at Publix, Hindin said she’ll shop at other stores nearby, namely The Fresh Market and Sprouts, for items such as produce.
The Sprouts, which opened on Aug. 18, is “known for the season’s freshest, most delicious produce around,” said Emma Dyer, the store’s Florida Operations Specialist.
If Hindin is up for a commute, as she called it, Hindin said she’ll traverse to the Whole Foods Market or Trader Joe’s in Boca Raton.
“But it’s really not that necessary because we have so many variety of these smaller stores in West Boca. So it’s really not necessary to go out of my 3- to 4-mile radius,” she said.
And yet, though the area explodes with grocery stores to choose from, some West Boca residents still feel one is missing.
“We need a Trader Joe’s!!!!” a commenter wrote on a Facebook thread about the area’s grocery stores.
“Ditto! We need a Trader Joe’s closer to West Boca!!!!” another commenter replied. Replies and “likes” from more than a dozen other Facebook users signaled a strong call for a Trader Joe’s out west.
Hindin agrees, especially because the parking lot and store itself in the downtown Boca Raton location is “very congested.”
“I’d love to see Trader Joe’s. I’m a big fan, but it’s not worth to me driving 30 minutes there and 30 minutes back,” she said.
