Publix supermarket chain to start construction on N.C. distribution center, its tenth in the U.S.

Publix, the largest employee-owned supermarket chain in the U.S., has gotten approval to move forward on a $400 million distribution campus in McLeansville, N.C.

On July 10, a year after Publix announced its plans for the campus, the Water Quality Committee of the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission approved the request to commence construction of the distribution facility, which would be Publix’s 10^th.

That campus will include a 1.1-million-sf refrigerated warehouse, a 120,000-sf food manufacturing facility, and a 1.3-million-sf dry warehouse. It is expected to generate 1,000 new jobs after it’s completed in late 2021 or early 2022.

Publix has selected LEO A DALY and its subsidiary engineering firm Lockwood, Andrews & Newman to design the refrigerated/frozen food part of the campus, which would be the retailer’s northern-most distribution point. (Currently, 38 of Publix’s 1,200-pus supermarkets are located in North Carolina.) LEO A DALY and LAN will provide architecture and engineering services, including fire-protection, refrigeration engineering, and sustainability consulting.

The GC on this project was not disclosed at presstime.

This project is design-bid-build. “The market sector is moving toward a design-build delivery method, but in this case, Publix will benefit from the design-led approach, with all disciplines in-house,” Mike Schmidt, AIA, NCARB, market-sector leader for food, distribution, and manufacturing in LEO A DALY’s West Palm Beach, Fla., design studio, tells BD+C. “Design-bid-build allows us to work directly with the client to understand its unique needs and deliver a more customized solution. We’re focused on innovative space planning, improvement the employee experience, and creating more efficient building systems.”

The North Carolina warehouse will be comparable to Publix’s DC in Orlando, Fla., which LEO A DALY designed. The design team intends to use BIM to track costs through the design process, and VR to plan spaces, get faster client feedback, and reduce waste.