The Publix Near Cresswind Just Opened. What Comes Next Is Still Being Decided

At 7 a.m. on June 11, more than fifty people were already lined up outside a storefront at the corner of State Road 64 and Uihlein Road. Store manager Josh Jordan shook hands with nearly every one of them before the doors slid open on the new Publix at Northchase Center, and the first customers walked through a corridor of clapping employees toward tables loaded with watermelon, breakfast sandwiches, blueberry maple sausages, and a limited-edition Chocolate Cookie Quarry ice cream. It was, in the specific way only a grocery store opening can be, a genuine neighborhood event.

For anyone in Cresswind who has spent the past few years making the longer drive for a grocery run, this is the part of the story that matters most day to day. But it is not the whole story. Directly across SR 64 from that new Publix sits an open field that Manatee County just approved for 195,000 square feet of commercial development, and almost none of what will actually go there has been decided yet. If you live in this corner of the northeastern quadrant, it is worth understanding the difference between what opened this summer and what is still just a set of permitted possibilities.

What's Actually Behind the New Doors

The Northchase Publix is a 15,701-square-foot store at 16642 State Road 64 E, open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. It carries the standard deli, produce, bakery, meat, and seafood counters, but the made-to-order side goes further than a typical Publix, with burritos, nachos, bowls, pizzas, and pastas built to order. There is a pharmacy, a liquor store, and an in-store bar called Pours that serves beer, wine, coffee, tea, smoothies, and acai bowls. It is the 19th Publix to open in Manatee County.

Publix is only the first tenant. Northchase Center sits on about 15 acres divided into five commercial lots with three outparcels fronting SR 64, and more businesses are expected to fill in around the anchor store over the coming months. For Saddlehorn Estates resident Valerie Moore, who lives close by, the new store is already a five-minute trip from her front door. Cresswind sits in that same northeastern corner of Lakewood Ranch, close enough that this reads less like a planned outing and more like an ordinary Tuesday errand.

The More Interesting Story Is Across the Highway

Here is where it gets more interesting than a grocery store opening. Directly across SR 64 from Northchase is an open field that Manatee County commissioners approved in April for 195,000 square feet of additional commercial development. The project, from Casto Net Lease Properties, is the same company behind Main Street and Center Point elsewhere in Lakewood Ranch. But approval for square footage is not the same as approval for specific businesses, and right now there is exactly one confirmed tenant for that entire parcel: Discovery Point Child Development Center.

Everything else, the restaurant that Publix shoppers keep asking about, a possible gas station, and a possible self-storage facility, is still undecided. The county's approval covers a range of uses that fall under what planning language calls medium neighborhood commercial, which can include a bank, a dry cleaner, medical offices, or the restaurant space itself. None of those specific tenants have signed on yet.

How It Almost Didn't Happen

The path to that April approval was not smooth, and understanding it explains why the site still feels so unfinished. The project was originally denied in December 2025 after East County residents raised concerns about flooding in the area. When it came back before commissioners in February 2026, Commissioner George Kruse gave it a second chance rather than letting the denial stand. Casto responded with an upgraded stormwater plan, and on April 23, 2026, the project was approved 4-1, with Commissioner Bob McCann still opposed and Commissioner Jason Bearden absent.

Kruse's reasoning was straightforward: with this much residential development already built out around the intersection, he argued the corridor needs services close by so residents are not driving further and adding to traffic elsewhere. The commercial site under discussion sits adjacent to Palm Grove, a 900-home Neal Communities development, in a section of Lakewood Ranch that the company's own senior vice president, Laura Cole, described as already 94 percent sold out as of the April 2026 vote. That immediate area alone accounts for nine neighborhoods and 9,297 homes inside the boundary formed by SR 64, SR 70, Lorraine Road, and Bourneside Boulevard. Cresswind sits in that same northeastern reach of Lakewood Ranch, part of the reason this corner of SR 64 has filled in as quickly as it has.

What's Locked In and What's Still a Guess

If you are trying to figure out what is actually coming to this corner versus what is still speculation, here is where things stand:

• Confirmed: Discovery Point Child Development Center, the only named tenant so far for the 195,000-square-foot parcel across SR 64.
• Confirmed: a restaurant will be part of the development, though which one has not been announced.
• Undecided: whether a self-storage facility gets built. If it does, it would run 130,000 square feet and sit on the interior of the property, away from the SR 64 frontage. If it does not, only about 90,000 square feet would take its place with other uses.
• Undecided: a gas station is possible given demand in the area, but nothing has been finalized.
• Undecided: the remaining space could go to a bank, dry cleaner, or medical office, all of which fall under the approved commercial category without a specific tenant attached.

In other words, the county granted permission for a shape, not a plan. What fills that shape is still up to whoever leases the space next.

What This Actually Changes for Cresswind

Cresswind's own footprint has not changed. The palm-lined entrance, the walking loop around the community's main pond, the eight lighted pickleball courts, and the resident-only clubhouse are exactly what they were before June. What has changed is what sits just outside the gate. A full grocery run with a pharmacy stop and a coffee no longer means leaving the immediate area, and that is a real shift for a village where errands have historically meant a longer drive toward Main Street or Lorraine Corners.

The appetite for more is clearly there. Chris and Glyris Renehan, who live in nearby Esplanade at Azario, were among the early-morning shoppers at the Publix opening. Glyris put it plainly:

"It's convenient, and I'm good with more restaurants."

She also noted she did not want anything built too tall, a preference that lines up with how this corridor has developed so far. Northchase is a low-rise neighborhood shopping center, not a mixed-use tower, and the parcel across SR 64 is following the same pattern. Whatever eventually leases that space is likely to look like the kind of everyday commercial building already familiar throughout Lakewood Ranch rather than anything that changes the skyline.

For now, the honest answer for anyone in Cresswind wondering what is coming next is that the grocery run got shorter, the restaurant is real but unnamed, and the rest is genuinely still in the air. That is a more useful thing to know than another paragraph about how convenient it all sounds.

If you are watching this corridor because you are weighing options within Lakewood Ranch, or you know someone who is curious about how this part of the northeastern quadrant is shaping up before making a move, reach out to Theresa DiNapoli and I will walk you through what is actually confirmed versus what is still a rendering.