Winn-Dixie #603 / Publix #1117
2514 McMullen Booth Road, Clearwater, FL - Northwood Plaza
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| Today's post is a presentation of Pinellas County retail |
Pinellas County is famous for having 14 Albertsons-to-Publix conversions within its bounds (the most of any Florida county), a conversion more commonly known as the "Publixsons" here on AFB. While the readers of this blog are no strangers to the Publixsons, Pinellas County does have one other Publix surprise for us amongst all the other mundane Publix builds around the county. Before Pinellas County even saw its first Publixsons, in 2005, Publix made a deal with a then-bankrupt Winn-Dixie to acquire a handful of stores throughout the southeast they had closed. One of those locations happened to be in Clearwater, bringing us Pinellas's very own "Pub-Dixie" - one of only 3 such conversions to exist within Florida (one of which we saw on the blog a number of years ago). Most times when Publix picks up a former Winn-Dixie site for a new store, Publix tears down the old Winn-Dixie building in order to start fresh. However, those stores Publix bought from Winn-Dixie shortly after their 2005 bankruptcy all survived in some form, whether only the building's structure was kept or the interior was just spiffed up and redecorated with some Classy Market 1.0. The Clearwater Pub-Dixie, like its other two Floridian counterparts, fell into the latter category. As a blogger that's seen just about every kind of building conversion Publix has ever come up with in Florida, I have to say, no other one feels weirder to me than a Pub-Dixie (and this is coming from a guy whose seen a Publix in an old Food Lion!). While the Pub Lion scores high on the strangeness scale, what throws me off about seeing a Publix that looks and feels like a Winn-Dixie inside must be that I could go across town and walk into an identical still-operating Winn-Dixie today. While that's a summary of my thoughts, I'll let everyone share their feelings on the Pub-Dixie at the end of this post, as right now we have a supermarket we need to talk about more:
The new Winn-Dixie was to be one of 3 anchors to the new Northwood Plaza, a complex that began construction on its first phase in 1979. The first phase of the center was quite small, including a handful of small storefronts facing McMullen Booth Road. The second phase, the largest part of the project, would include the anchor stores and the rest of the center, all of which would be set back a bit from the road.
While Phase 1 was able to open before the end of 1979, Phase 2's construction spilled into 1980. According to the developers, the opening of Phase 2 would be worth the wait, as their new shopping center was to feature stores surrounding a European-style courtyard in an open-air mall design, a modern new approach to the shopping mall, they stated. Bringing in the same architect who designed all 3 of Clearwater's malls (Clearwater, Sunshine, and Countryside), the developers were hoping the open-air mall design would be the "shopping center of the future" for the 1980s.
Seen above is a rendering of the center's courtyard, which featured a sunken pond, sitting areas, and landscaping. A classy design for a classy shopping center! Sadly, while the buildings still look (generally) the same today, the courtyard was eventually replaced with additional parking - not quite the peaceful place to sit and chat like the original architect intended!
Upon its opening in February 1980, the Northwood Winn-Dixie was the largest store the chain operated in Pinellas County at 31,000 square feet. The Winn-Dixie was tucked toward the back of the plaza away from the main courtyard in order to take advantage of the larger amount of parking at that end of the plaza.
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| The Northwood Winn-Dixie can be seen in its original form in the bottom photo in the article above. |
In addition to Winn-Dixie, the other anchors of Northwood Plaza were Shoppers Drug Mart and Jacobson's department store. To me, the pairing of Winn-Dixie and Jacobson's as anchors was an unusual choice, as that would be like seeing Winn-Dixie and Macy's anchoring a shopping center today. With Northwood going for a classy European-style shopping vibe, I'm not surprised they wanted to feature a higher-end anchor to compliment the aesthetic, but it was certainly an interesting juxtaposition!
For those of you who aren't familiar with the company, Jacobson's was a department store chain based out of Michigan, where most of the company's stores were located. While Jacobson's did eventually expand into some states surrounding Michigan, the chain's boldest, and eventually most successful, expansion attempt involved skipping over a vast majority of the Midwestern and Southeastern US for the big prize of Florida.
Like many other chains in the past, Jacobson's wanted to take advantage of Florida's large population of relocated Michiganders (and Midwesterners in general) as part of their leap into the Sunshine State. The expansion proved successful, with the Clearwater store opening as the 6th Florida location for the chain. In an interesting move, Jacobson's opened at Northwood with only 14,000 square feet of space at its grand opening, with a focus on women's fashion. Once the store was established, room for a 30,000 square foot expansion was prepared behind the existing store, at which time Jacobson's would add men's and children's clothing as well as home furnishings.
Like many department store chains, Jacobson's wasn't immune to the squeeze being placed on the industry come the 1990's. The chain was closing stores at the time as it tried to remain relevant, using the more successful Florida division to prop up the struggling Midwestern stores. However, facing declining sales, Jacobson's declared bankruptcy in 2002, with the Clearwater store going out of business earlier that year as part of a closure wave following the original filing. However, the chain itself wouldn't last much longer, as after failing to find a buyer, the remaining Jacobson's stores would close by the end of 2002. Following Jacobson's closure, most of their space became home to a Stein Mart, with the remaining portion of the building being split off for smaller tenants. The Shoppers Drug Mart next door would eventually become an Eckerd and is still to this day operating as a CVS. That's a summary of the other anchor tenants of Northwood Plaza, so with that out of the way, let's switch back over to Winn-Dixie:
The Northwood Winn-Dixie was expanded out the left in the early 1990's when it was converted to the chain's Marketplace format, with a second expansion happening around 1998 (primarily to add stockroom space to the back right corner of the building) when the store was converted into a Marketplace Food Pavilion - Winn-Dixie's highest-end format at the time. While the Food Pavilion conversion was a great way to bring this store in-line with the higher-end feel it was trying to portray, it wasn't enough to generate more business, as this store would end up closing in Winn-Dixie massive closure wave following the chain's bankruptcy filing in 2005.
Coincidentally, Northwood's landlord was planning a remodel of the center's facade later in 2005, something he hoped would help attract a new tenant to Winn-Dixie's space. While I don't think the refreshed facade was the only reason, I think the upscale-nature of this shopping center in general is what drew Publix to pick up this store in bankruptcy court proceedings.
Winn-Dixie closed at Northwood sometime around July or August 2005, with Publix opening on November 17, 2005. With that kind of turnaround, I can just picture in my mind some Classy Market 1.0 thrown right on top of some Marketplace decor remnants - I would have loved to see that!
While I can say for certain this store opened with Classy Market 1.0, I actually don't know how thorough Publix was with that initial remodel. By the time I got to see this store in all of its Classy Market 3.0/Sienna glory, any super obvious traces of the Marketplace decor were gone, but the feel of a Marketplace store was not. Turning our attention to the front of the building, we see the results of the 2005 facade refresh, which complimented the Publix well. Ironically, the banner on the front of the building that says "Welcome to your Northwood Plaza Publix! Where it's our pleasure to serve you!" was installed to greet shoppers from the recently closed Winn-Dixie that was located across the street - more on that later, but Winn-Dixie was never able to catch a break in this neighborhood!
Stepping onto the front walkway, we can see that Publix did modify the entryway a bit from the typical Marketplace concave style, essentially flipping the doors outward the opposite way. That was one of the largest structural changes we'll be seeing here, as once we step inside...
…you'll be shopping at the Publix Marketplace! Outside of the usual Publix upgrades like new wall decor and the installation of new floor tiles, the layout of this store is basically that of a late 1990's Winn-Dixie Food Pavilion, just with a few minor changes. Speaking of, we're actually going to start off with one of those changes:
Along the front wall between the entrance and produce is the floral department, located in the alcove that would have once housed Winn-Dixie's wine department. While Winn-Dixie was known to move Floral toward the front of the store like this in the early 2000's, I don't know what Winn-Dixie may have done to this store between its Food Pavilion remodel and when it closed, however, I do know having Floral near the front like this is a very Publix-style layout though, so it could go either way.
Next to floral, we find produce in the front right corner of the building. The front of the produce department extends into the front alcove containing floral as well, a quirk from this store's many expansions by Winn-Dixie through the years. See here for an example of a Winn-Dixie Marketplace with a produce department extending into a similar alcove.
From produce, we eventually come across the distinctive Food Pavilion "grand aisle" with the bakery along the wall to my right and the deli in an island to my left.
The grand aisle setup here reminds me a lot of the Jewel-Publixsons stores, although with those old Jewel-Osco stores being so much bigger, that version is much wider than Winn-Dixie's! If you really wanted to compare this store to a Jewel-Publixsons, all you'd have to do is drive 4 miles up the road to the one I just linked to!
Along the store's right side wall is the bakery department, which outside of the decor, still follows the same design and outline as it would have when Winn-Dixie was in here.
In addition to the layout, it also appears Publix kept Winn-Dixie's original lighting in here as well. The original lighting also helps keep that Winn-Dixie feel alive and well too!
On the other side of the grand aisle, we find the deli department within the island. In addition to the traditional deli counter, this island would have contained some of the fancier Food Pavilion prepared foods options like the oriental wok. I'd have to guess most of the prepared food options were removed in the years before this store closed, as it seems like Winn-Dixie dumbed down many of these Food Pavilions in the early 2000's as a way to save money. These days Publix has only their average line-up of prepared foods for sale here, with the Pub Subs and fried chicken in addition to the regular deli fare.
Entering the back right corner of the building, Winn-Dixie's former beer corner was since been converted into Publix's new wine corner. The original beer corner was angled, with Publix actually taking the effort to rip out that original contour in order to build this new alcove back here.
Meat and seafood, however, retain their original design and home from Winn-Dixie, located along the back wall following the new wine corner. I don't know what Publix's signage crews were doing back here either, as while the meat signage was installed correctly and mounted to the black bar, the Seafood signage is a little wonky!
This empty space between the meat counter and the deli island would have been home to the Food Pavilion seating area, which Publix now uses as dead space for pallet drops and promo items.
Turning around and coming up the back of the deli island, here's a look at aisle 1, home to the relocated beer selection as well as chips and snacks.
Looking across the front end, we see Publix installed a new service desk island, moving the desk from Winn-Dixie's original home along the front wall. Following the initial conversion, Publix most likely kept the desk up there, only moving it in one of this store's later remodels.
As far as remodels go, this store is on its 4th from Publix. Originally opening with Classy Market 1.0, this store would eventually remodel again to Classy Market 2.5/Bamboo in the early 2010's and then remodel again to Classy Market 3.0/Sienna in the late 2010's. The most recent remodel, to Evergreen, occurred ca. 2025, meaning this Pub-Dixie still has a bit of life left in it. To date, only 1 Pub-Dixie has been totally demolished and rebuilt of the few that exist, that being the one formerly located in Meridianville, AL, Publix's only tear-down and rebuild project in Alabama to date.
Returning to the back wall, here's a look at the meat coolers as we approach the frozen foods aisles.
Like Winn-Dixie would have had it, frozen foods are located in the center of the salesfloor. All the coolers we see here are Publix standard issue, so Publix did replace all of these at some point, probably before moving in (as could you only imagine Publix reusing something that looked like this prior?).
The main frozen foods aisle is aisle 6, which we just saw. The remainder of frozen foods spills over into aisle 7, pictured above, with greeting cards taking up the remaining space in this aisle.
Here's one final look back toward the meat department, with the beginnings of the dairy department visible on the far left edge of the photo. Dairy occupies the back left corner of the building and wraps onto the left wall, taking up about half of the wall space in the last aisle.
Back into the grocery aisles, we find the cleaning supplies in aisle 9. Looks like there was quite the run on water softener salts here too!
Next door in aisle 10, the second to last aisle, we find the majority of the store's health and beauty supplies
Lastly in aisle 11, the back of the aisle contains the remainder of the dairy department, with drinks and the PB&J supplies occupying the remaining shelf space. For what in reality is a 55,000 square foot supermarket space, 11 aisles may not seem like a whole lot, but this store is pretty wide. The grand aisle and the deli island take up a bit of space width-wise, crunching down the aisle count a bit, but the aisles themselves are quite long, making up for the narrowed space.
The front left corner of the building is home to this angled wall, a wall upon which Winn-Dixie would have had its pharmacy counter. Interestingly, I can't find a pharmacy license for this store, which would lead me to believe Winn-Dixie never had a pharmacy here, which would also explain Publix's lack of a pharmacy too (a rarity for a Publix store opened since the 1990's, but something that does happen from time to time). Since CVS still operates in this plaza, I'd have to guess they have some sort of restriction on being the only pharmacy in the center, otherwise I'd imagine Publix would have slipped a pharmacy into this store by now.
For now though, the potential pharmacy space serves as a staging area for Publix's grocery pickup service and home to a small display of beach items.
Having completed our loop around the store, here's one final look across the front end at the store's 10 check lanes.
While I'd have to argue the Vero Beach store I linked to earlier is the best preserved of Florida's 3 Pub-Dixies, this one isn't too far behind. The 3rd Florida Pub-Dixie, store #1127 in Lake Mary, had part of its grand aisle rebuilt by Publix. While that took away from the originality just a bit, that one still has some original elements left behind, and one day I'll eventually get around to posting the Lake Mary Pub-Dixie store too.
Back outside, on the left side of the building we find the Publix Liquor store. I believe Publix built out this liquor store themselves, as it appears to occupy the spot Winn-Dixie was setting aside for the eventual addition of a pharmacy if there were ever able to add one.
Should CVS ever close their store and Publix want to install a pharmacy, Publix may have to get creative with the placement of that if they took up all the reserved pharmacy space for the liquor store. However, it doesn't seem like CVS has any plans of moving their store anytime soon, so that may be a problem Publix won't need to face for a very long time, if ever.
While Publix appears to have had plenty of success taking advantage of Winn-Dixie's woes in Clearwater, Winn-Dixie didn't totally give up on this particular street corner in Clearwater. Upon Winn-Dixie's purchase of Sweetbay Supermarkets in 2013, a Sweetbay directly across the street from Northwood Plaza was included in that sale:
The Sweetbay across the street from Northwood Plaza began its life as a Kash n' Karry in 1984, competing with Winn-Dixie for over 20 years. Around the same time Winn-Dixie closed and became Publix in 2005, Kash n' Karry began its own conversion into Sweetbay, leaving a 9 year gap between Winn-Dixie's closing at Northwood and Winn-Dixie's eventual return across the street at the Sweetbay site.
Even pre-Aldi, Winn-Dixie could never catch a break sometimes. In 2021, it was announced this Winn-Dixie would be closing. Winn-Dixie closed very few stores outright following their 2018 bankruptcy and the sale to Aldi in 2023, so what happened here in Clearwater to warrant a closure? As it turned out, Amazon was shopping around Pinellas County for locations for new Amazon Fresh stores, and they outbid Winn-Dixie's lease to open a store here. Amazon was pretty aggressive with wanting to open stores in established areas with little land for new stores from what I've read, so if they couldn't find an empty building they liked in a built-out area (like Pinellas County), they were known to offer a lot of money to landlords of existing supermarkets to kick them out. That's what happened to Winn-Dixie here.
I visited this store only days after it closed in 2021, with the "Store Closing" banner still hanging on the front of the building too. I actually had no idea this store was closing when I attempted to visit it this day either, so the closing banner was a complete surprise to me as I pulled into the parking lot! While I wasn't able to get my Sweet-Dixie tour this day, at least I was able to visit the other vestige of Winn-Dixie across the street!
Had Amazon not outbid Winn-Dixie for this store, I'd have to guess this one would have eventually closed to become an Aldi anyway, as Aldi doesn't have a store in this part of town. Probably would have been better to see this store become an Aldi, as at least there would be another grocery store of some kind here again. Following Amazon's pause on new Fresh stores in 2022, this store sat built out but empty, and continues to sit that way to this day. With Amazon Fresh totally scrapped now, this building just appears to be sitting in limbo, much like the few other boxes Amazon built out for Fresh across Florida before ending the concept (Florida never had a Fresh store actually open, although many were planned before the concept was retired).
If the landlord does want to bring another grocery store to this shopping center and Winn-Dixie's corporate office is reading this post, I decided to run this former Amazon Fresh store through Gemini to give them all a little inspiration on what they can do with this space. A never-opened Amazon Fresh cleans up pretty well as a Winn-Dixie, doesn't it? And if Winn-Dixie likes this, there are a few other empty Fresh boxes sitting around too, and I have plenty of other real estate suggestions as well!
Anyway, that's all I have for now in relation to Pub-Dixies, Sweet-Dixies, and Amazon Fresh-Dixies. More to come in two weeks, so until the next post,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
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