Shopping will soon be a pleasure for University of South Florida students, faculty and staff who will be able to stop at a new Publix Supermarket going up where the Andros student living complex currently is.
The Florida Board of Governors - the head of the State University System of Florida - approved the plan to build the store Thursday.
The contract with the Lakeland-based chain would run for 21 years, with six five-year renewals available for a 50-year total term.
"It allows students who don't have cars, students who are here on campus, to go ahead and stay on campus to do their shopping,"USF Chief Financial Officer Nick Trivunovich said last year.
USF will charge Publix $130,000 a year to rent approximately three acres of land for the store and parking lot. Currently, a grass field and portions of the Andros complex parking lot are on that property.
The approximately 29,000 square-foot store is a centerpiece of a new Student Housing Village, the largest public-private partnership ever approved by the Board of Governors. Construction on the store is expected to be completed in the fall of 2017.
