Kroger slated to get large new neighbor

A real estate development group hopes to break ground on an ambitious new shopping center near the corner of North Columbia Street and Log Cabin Road at some point in early 2022, Baldwin2k News has learned. 

The "anchor tenant" is slated to be Publix, the Florida-based supermarket with a distinctly southern footprint, including roughly 200 stores here in Georgia.

Of course, this would be the second "ambitious new shopping center near the corner of North Columbia Street and Log Cabin Road" in recent memory. Kroger, as well as several outparcels, opened to the public in October 2011. The new "Publix shopping center" would sit just south of the Kroger shopping center and across Log Cabin Road. It essentially would occupy most of the  southern corner of North Columbia Street and Log Cabin Road and next to Elements Car Wash, which opened last year.

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The development group's goal is to have access into the new shopping center from both North Columbia Street and Log Cabin Road, basically the same as the Kroger shopping center. The new shopping center primarily will occupy two large parcels. The first is the 19.6-acre property at 111 Log Cabin Road, an undeveloped piece of land that borders Elements 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, which is much smaller, sits at the dead end of Turkey Run in the Long Leaf Trail/Horton Homes neighborhood. 

For more perspective, see the screen grabs immediately below:

Outlined is Kroger (information courtesy of the Baldwin County Tax Assessor's Office)

Outlined is the property at 111 Log Cabin Road (information courtesy of the Baldwin County Tax Assessor's Office)

Outlined is the property at 2781 North Columbia Street (information courtesy of the Baldwin County Tax Assessor's Office)

The developer currently is in the latter stages of the bureaucratic process. According to the City Council's agenda for the Nov. 9 meetings, under "New Business," are items to: 

• conduct the first reading or an ordinance to amend the Charter of the City of Milledgeville to accept approximately 7.99 acres located at 2781 North Columbia Street into the corporate limits of the City of Milledgeville with the zoning set as Community Commercial (CC) and placed in voting district 6.
• conduct the first reading of an ordinance to amend the Land Development Code to rezone property located at 118 Turkey Run from SFR2 to CC to combine with other properties for a grocery store and shops.
• conduct the first reading of an ordinance to amend the Land Development Code to rezone property located at 118 Turkey Run from SFR2 to CC to combine with other properties for a grocery store and shops.