Save-A-Lot Coming to Site of 13th Avenue Community Center

It's finally official: Save-A-Lot is coming to First Street and 13th Avenue.

The grocery store chain signed a letter of intent this month to build the long awaited grocery store, that will anchor a shopping center that could include restaurants and a bank and that is likely to bring more than two dozen jobs in the longterm. All together the project should bring close to 100 jobs including about 70 construction jobs while the development is being built.

Work has already begun on the site where the former 13th Avenue Community Center once stood. The old community center was demolished last week to make room for the new urban shopping center.

Construction on the grocery store could begin as soon as August, said Tim Polk, director of planning and community development for the city of Bradenton.

The developers, Casto and New Start Community Development, are working with the city's Central Community Redevelopment Agency in a public private partnership. The more than 3-acre property is triangular and hemmed in by railroad tracks on one side with limited access because of traffic patterns on U.S. 41. The shopping center will be made up of three separate buildings and about nine business.

The $6 million project will receive about $3 million in public funding and leases will include discounts for those businesses that pay employees above the minimum wage.