An Isle of Wight County resident who recently inquired about an opening date for the new Publix on Carrollton Boulevard received a Dec. 12 email from the company’s customer care division stating the store is projected to open in January.

But a Publix spokesman wouldn’t confirm the statement or specify an exact date.

Publix spokesman Jared Glover said he would send out an advisory when Publix is ready to announce its grand opening for the Carrollton location. The Florida-based grocer had said last year that the store would open in late 2024.

The Carrollton Publix is one of several new stores that are part of the company’s ongoing Virginia expansion. To date, Publix operates 22 stores across the state according to its website.

The 48,387-square-foot Carrollton store will be the company’s fourth or fifth in Hampton Roads. Last December, a 45,000-square-foot Publix opened in Suffolk at Godwin Boulevard and Kings Fork Road after 19 months of construction that began in 2022. The company’s list of recently opened stores on its website includes one in Virginia Beach that opened Dec. 12.

They join an open store in Williamsburg and one listed as “coming soon” in Chesapeake.

As of Dec. 14, the exterior of the Carrollton Publix appeared largely complete with a recently paved parking lot.

Plans to bring Publix to Carrollton began in 2022 when Jerry Bowman, developer of The Crossings at Bartlett Station, received approval from Isle of Wight County supervisors to scrap circa-2002 pans for a shopping center and instead subdivide The Crossings’ commercial phase into multiple, smaller parcels, one of which Bowman pledged would be an “upscale” national grocery chain. Plans for the Carrolton Publix on file with Isle of Wight County called for a had as of December 2022 called for a 51,851-square-foot grocery store and an additional 7,200 square feet of attached retail space on an 11.28-acre parcel at the corner of two of The Crossings’ newly created roads: Lori Anne Way and Spadea Way, directly behind a new Royal Farms gas station.

Assistant County Administrator Don Robertson said he hadn’t seen anything identifying the tenants of the attached retail spaces yet.

“We have seen marketing material for the other spaces, but it generically references ‘retail’ but nothing specific for the other spaces,” Robertson said.

The Royal Farms opened in August, becoming the second business to open its doors in the development following a new branch of Langley Federal Credit Union located at 14328 Lori Ann Way.

The Crossings’ residential phase, which is approved for up to 240 condominium units and 52 single-family homes, broke ground in 2021 and continues to build out.

Publix North Carolina LP, the subsidiary building the Carrollton store, applied to the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority for a retail off premises gourmet shop license to sell wine and beer earlier this year. That license has been granted, according to state records.