Hillsborough County will welcome its newest Whole Foods store, as the grocer has secured a location in the Lithia Crossing plaza on Lithia Pinecrest Road, just south of Bloomingdale Avenue in Valrico.
The new supermarket will be renovating the locations previously occupied by The Fresh Market and Stein Mart to create a 38,000-square-foot Whole Foods as well as two additional units that will be available for lease upon completion. This location will be only the third Whole Foods store in all of Hillsborough County, with Pinellas and Sarasota counties each having two locations. Kite Realty, owner of Lithia Crossing, recently revised the plaza’s site plan to show the 38,000-square-foot anchor.
What makes Whole Foods unique is the company’s focus on providing products free of hydrogenated fats, artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives as well as banning over 500 ingredients in its food, beverages, supplements, body care, and household cleaning supplies. They are a USDA certified Organic grocer.
Amazon purchased Whole Foods Market in August 2017 for $13.7 billion. There are 522 Whole Foods Market stores in the U.S. as of January, with the Lithia location becoming Florida’s 36th Whole Foods. By way of comparison, Whole Foods is a relatively small operation, with Aldi U.S. locations numbering 2,464 locations and Publix numbering 1,439 as of the same date.
Additionally, the same updated Lithia Crossing plaza site plans show a new traffic light installed on Lithia Pinecrest Road between Lithia Crossing plaza, anchored by Whole Foods, and the Shoppes of Lithia plaza, anchored by Publix. The signal, which has been in the works as far back as 2021, will allow a much safer access point to the grocers and tenants of either shopping center.
This additional signal will be the fourth within a 1 1/2-mile stretch of road, so the timing of the lights will be paramount to their success. Additionally, with Lithia Pinecrest Road planned for a widening from two lanes to four from Lumsden Road to FishHawk Boulevard, it will be interesting to see if the additional lanes will be accounted for at this time or revisited when the expansion begins.
Please visit www.wholefoodsmarket.com and https://kiterealty.com/properties/lithia-crossing for more information.
