Publix makes it official; shopping center timetable now known

There have been plenty of rumors around town that "Publix isn't really coming," just because Milledgeville has its fair share of negative people.

Publix indeed is coming, however, according to a press release sent out Wednesday to media outlets around middle Georgia from the new shopping center's developer.

“We are excited to bring the first Publix Super Market to the Milledgeville community. The shopping center will be well-positioned in the trade area to provide a grocery alternative for residents and bring new retailers, restaurants, and service providers to the area," according to Sembler Senior Vice President, Josh Beyer.

The press release also offered a timeline, with Publix and the first phase of the shopping center "expected to open in early 2024." Construction, meanwhile, is expected to begin in the coming months.

The new name of the shopping center is "Lakeside Commons."

Pictured above is an artist rendering and property layout of the front of the new Lakeside Commons shopping center.

CLICK HERE to meet the Williams "family"

If you could "copy" the current Kroger shopping center and "paste" it directly across Log Cabin Road, the layout wouldn't be exactly the same as the new Lakeside Commons, but it would be awfully similar. Indeed, the drawings for Lakeside Commons have many similarities with the current Kroger shopping center:

• Both grocery stores will sit in the rear of the property and face North Columbia

• Both shopping centers also will have a strip mall directly to the right of the parking lot

• Both shopping centers will have access from both North Columbia and Log Cabin with a pre-existing business on the corner – the Jet store for Kroger and the tunnel car wash for Publix

Sembler also is taking this time to receive inquiries from prospective business owners, franchisees and corporations. The Sembler group now has a web page for the proposed shopping center, dubbed "Lakeside Commons," which can be viewed by CLICKING HERE.

The Lakeside Commons strip mall, according to the drawings, will include 10 units, with each unit being 20 feet wide and 60 feet deep, for a total of 1,200 square feet. Two of the units in the middle of the strip mall were listed as "unavailable" on the web page, which may or may not mean that Sembler already has signed a pair of leases. 

Meanwhile, two large "outparcels" also will sit to the right of the strip mall and closer towards town. One outparcel is listed at 1.41 acres and the other 1.24 acres.

The Kroger shopping center developers originally had the same plan with several large outparcels and hoped to target big box stores. After more than 10 years with no bites, however, the developers apparently gave up andthose outlying properties in the Kroger shopping center are now for sale, outright. The 19.02-acre property is listed for $2.38 million.

"We've been receiving a lot of interest, and the feedback we've been receiving about the project and the location have been great," Hareas said previously. "Obviously, there's a great deal of growth taking place in your area and exciting things going on. We look forward to signing leases with a number of businesses in the near future."

The Sembler Group more recently completed the North Macon Plaza shopping center off of Interstate 75 in Macon, which includes the following stores listed in the image below...

In terms of average daily traffic counts, according to Sembler's web page, that stretch of North Columbia clocks in at 19,800 and Log Cabin 5,980, respectively.

The new Lakeside Commons shopping center primarily essentially will occupy two large pre-existing properties. The first is the 19.6-acre property at 111 Log Cabin Road, an undeveloped piece of land that borders the tunnel car wash to the east and the Long Leaf Trail/Horton Homes neighborhood to the north. Also involved is the 8.77-acre property at 2781 North Columbia Street, just south of Elements Car Wash and closer to town. The third property involved, much smaller, sits at the dead end of Turkey Run in the Long Leaf Trail/Horton Homes neighborhood