People living in a mostly residential area of Longwood are bracing for a big change when a Publix store is expected to replace a church that stands at the corner of Lake Emma Road and Longwood Hills Road. 

  • Publix store to replace Longwood church
  • Community learned of plans at meeting w/ city, developer, Publix
  • Store designed to serve growing community, officials say

On Wednesday night, residents learned more about the planned Publix neighborhood store at a community meeting with the city, the developer and Publix.

Resident Jerry Huff has been waiting to find out what’s going to happen behind his house.

“We still have damage from Irma,” Huff said.

Huff is still waiting to fix the damage to a fence and privacy wall until he knows exactly what’s going in behind his property. It currently backs up to the church, New Creation Assembly.

Rendering of the future Publix store at the corner of Lake Emma Rd. and Longwood Hills Rd. (City of Longwood)

Longwood city officials said Publix will own the land and plans to build a smaller, 30,000 square foot version of its typical grocery store. The store is designed to serve the growing Longwood community.

“I’m interested in using the Publix myself because the nearest one is in Lake Mary — it’s about a 10 to 15 minute drive,” Huff said.

He does have concerns.

“Initially the construction will be kind of troublesome because we’ll be hearing it throughout the day, because I do work out of my home from time to time and hearing it may be bothersome,” said Huff.

Another resident said he’s concerned about people who might hang out at the store and what that could mean for nearby homes.

At this point Huff said he doesn’t even know which side of the store he’ll be looking at from his house, but he’s not too worried about what the view will be.

“I’m excited to see how it’s going to turn out,” Huff said. “To be honest with you, it’s really cool.”​