The Laker/Lutz News

Sweetbay

Save-A-Lot opening at Zephyrhills Plaza

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Save-A-Lot grocery store will move into the vacant anchor spot at Zephyrhills Plaza on State Road 54.

Sunshine Partners Development Corp., has filed a conceptual plan to redevelop the plaza, county records show. Save-A-Lot, and potential additional retail tenants, could give the plaza a new start.

800px-Save-A-Lot_logo.svgThe approximately 52,000-square-foot discount grocery store will replace the former Sweetbay grocery store that closed in 2014.

The closure was part of an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission following the purchase by Bi-Lo Holdings of more than 150 Sweetbay, Harveys and Reid grocery stores from the Delhaize Group. The intent was to operate the stores under the Winn-Dixie brand.

But to encourage local competition, the federal agency ordered Bi-Lo to close more than a dozen stores in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. They were considered too close to stores already under Bi-Lo control. Two of those stores were in Zephyrhills and Dade City.

A tentative opening for Save-A-Lot is scheduled for late October with remodeling likely to begin in midsummer, said Save-A-Lot spokeswoman Chon Tomlin.

Save-A-Lot operates more than 100 stores in Florida, and more than 1,300 nationwide. Bill Moran founded the company when he opened his first grocery store in Illinois in 1977.

“We have a really solid footprint in Florida,” Tomlin said. “Our model is well-established in the state.”

Store officials look for established neighborhoods with a customer base that want to have a grocery store close to home, Tomlin said.

“It’s really about being a community grocery store,” she added.

Published June 3, 2015

Local Hobby Lobby home sells for $4.1M

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Merchant’s Square, a Zephyrhills strip mall where Hobby Lobby opened earlier this year, is now under new ownership.

RCG-Zephyrhills SPE LLC finalized its sale of the 75,000-square-foot shopping center on Gall Boulevard on July 23 for $4.1 million. RCG-Zephyrhills is affiliated with RCG Ventures in Atlanta, according to state corporate records. It is a real estate investment group that raised more than $100 million last August to invest in “value-add shopping centers” across the country.

The price tag on Merchant’s Square is less than the $5.6 million Merchants Station LLC paid for the property in 1998 when it was anchored by Kash n’ Karry. That grocery store later rebranded to Sweetbay, which closed last year after that chain was sold to Bi-Lo Holdings.

Hobby Lobby became the new anchor for the strip mall in January when it opened a 46,000-square-foot store there.

By the time it finished raising money for its most current fund used to buy Merchant’s Square, RCG Ventures had acquired 85 properties nationwide totaling nearly $500 million in invested capital. Its portfolio at the time included 65 properties in 19 states with more than 6.75 million square feet.

This is the second major property deal in Zephyrhills this year, following All Craft Marine Holdings’ $1.5 million purchase of its manufacturing space on County Road 54 in February.

Dairy Queen, Tuffy land sold in Wesley Chapel

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The land under a Dairy Queen and a Tuffy Service Center in Wesley Chapel has a new owner from Kentucky.

An acre of land at 27329 Wesley Chapel Blvd., sold last week for $2.35 million to Monticello Properties LLC. That company is connected to Kentucky real estate developer and bank chairman Jack Sheidler. Its previous owner, J & J Wesley Chapel LLC, had originally bought the land in 2006 for $1.8 million. The buildings, according to county property records, were built in 2002.

Monticello purchased the property using a $1.5 million loan from BB&T.

The land is an outparcel of the former Sweetbay supermarket location in Wesley Chapel, which has since converted to Winn-Dixie.

Sheidler has developed real estate since 1984, according to published reports. He is the chair of Citizens First Bank Inc., which operates primarily in the Bowling Green area of Kentucky.

This is the 15th land sale in Pasco County this year above $1 million, accounting for $71.8 million in land sales this year, according to county property records. However, that is off pace from last year when 58 land deals were completed in the county above $1 million, totaling $204.8 million.

Sweetbay closing in Zephyrhills, Dade City

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There will be two less grocery stores for some Pasco County residents as the new owner of Sweetbay says its closing locations in Zephyrhills and Dade City.

The stores, located at 36538 State Road 54 in Zephyrhills and 12530 U.S. 301 in Dade City, will close April 5, according to Bi-Lo Holdings LLC. They are two of more than a dozen stores in the southeast the Jacksonville company must close because of their proximity to other stores owned by the company. The order to shutter the stores came from the Federal Trade Commission, and it’s unclear how many employees will be affected.

“We appreciate the many contributions our associates in these stores have made, and we will ensure they are treated respectfully and have the opportunity to pursue other open positions in nearby stores,” Randall Onstead, president and chief executive of Bi-Lo Holdings, said in a release.

Bi-Lo bought Sweetbay from Delhaize Group last May for $265 million. The company announced in October it would rebrand Sweetbay to Winn-Dixie, the larger grocery store chain it bought in 2011.

Sweetbay started as a fruits and vegetable stand on the streets of Tampa in 1914 before growing into the Kash n’ Karry chain in the 1960s. Delhaize changed the name to Sweetbay in 2004.

Other local Sweetbays include 27301 State Road 54 in Wesley Chapel, 6425 County Line Road in Tampa, 17649 Gunn Highway in Odessa, and on 15692 North Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa.

Sweetbay set to change its name … again

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Life has not been good for a supermarket chain with roots in Tampa, as it prepares for its third name in the past 10 years.

Sweetbay Supermarket will soon become Winn-Dixie, a brand that has also struggled in the region under the dominance of both Publix Super Markets, and later Walmart. The name change will mark the end of the Sweetbay brand, which was  introduced in 2004 as a way to refresh stores that had been known as Kash n’ Karry since 1962.

The move was not unexpected after Sweetbay’s parent, Delhaize Group, sold the regional chain to Bi-Lo Holdings LLC in May for $265 million.

Don’t get too used to seeing the Sweetbay name on storefronts, like this one in Wesley Chapel. The incoming new owner of the chain, Bi-Lo Holdings LLC, announced last week it would rebrand Sweetbay to Winn-Dixie, based on the larger grocery chain Bi-Lo purchased in 2011. (Photo by Michael Hinman)
Don’t get too used to seeing the Sweetbay name on storefronts, like this one in Wesley Chapel. The incoming new owner of the chain, Bi-Lo Holdings LLC, announced last week it would rebrand Sweetbay to Winn-Dixie, based on the larger grocery chain Bi-Lo purchased in 2011. (Photo by Michael Hinman)

Bi-Lo had already purchased Winn-Dixie in 2011 for $530 million, and with more than 600 stores already — including three in this area — it easily trumped the 72 remaining Sweetbay stores in Florida.

Signs aren’t coming down just yet. Bi-Lo says it’s waiting for its deal to acquire Sweetbay and two other regional supermarket chains to close before starting rebranding efforts. Sweetbay has four locations locally, including on State Road 54 in Wesley Chapel, on County Line Road in Tampa, on Gunn Highway in Odessa, and on North Dale Mabry Highway. Once the rebranding takes place, Winn-Dixie will have seven locations, including the ones already owned on Collier Parkway in Land O’ Lakes, U.S. 41 in Lutz, and on State Road 54 in Zephyrhills.

At this point, Bi-Lo says it has no plans to close any of the stores, or lay off any workers. Local stores should be fully rebranded by the end of spring next year.

Even with a familiar rebrand, the new Winn-Dixie will have a ways to go to catch its local competitors. Publix is the nation’s largest employee-owned company, and had sales of $27.5 billion last year, according to Forbes magazine.

The chain’s primary competition is Walmart, not Winn-Dixie or any other grocery chain in the state. Both Publix and Walmart have been focused on an advertising battle against each other in recent years, with Publix still holding on to the state lead.

Sweetbay started as a fruits and vegetable stand on the streets of Tampa in 1914 by Salvatore Greco. With his wife Giuseppina, the Grecos would open their first store in Plant City in 1947 under the name Big Barn, and would grow to nine stores by 1960.