The developer of a shopping center on U.S. 78 just west of Mars Hill Road says he has executed a lease with Publix and expects to break ground on the project this spring.
Fred Hand IV of Hand Properties Inc. of Atlanta said on Thursday that signage will go up on the property next week announcing the project.
ADE 1229 LLC, in care of Hand Properties Inc., purchased 10.1 acres from William Jones of Jackson on Dec. 22 for $1.9 million, according to county tax records,.
The 10.1 acres are part of a 31.8-acre parcel owned by Jones.
A JP convenience store and gas station with a Burger King and a Subway sit at the eastern end of that property at the corner of Mars Hill Road and U.S. 78. The legal address is 2430 Monroe Highway.
Hand is the first of three developers of shopping centers with a grocery store as an anchor proposed for U.S. 78 between Mars Hill Road and Hog Mountain Road to move forward with development.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 6 approved a rezone it had initiated for 33.7 acres on the Oconee Connector between SR 316 and Mars Hill Road for a shopping center that also was to include a Publix.
The attorneys for the property owner, Deferred Tax LLC, have rejected that rezone by the county.
Details Of Shopping Center
Site plans submitted to the county by Hand Properties show a 54,964 square foot anchor with 11,200 square feet of retail shops to the east of the anchor.
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| Site Plan (Click To Enlarge) |
According to qPublic records, the Publix in Butler’s Crossing is 51,568 square feet in size.
The plans submitted by Hand also show a pharmacy drive through on the west side of the anchor building and 354 parking spaces between the shopping center and U.S. 78.
Entrance to the shopping center will be via a signalized intersection with U.S. 78 opposite Clotfelter Road and via a right-in right-out driveway on the eastern side of the shopping center.
The shopping center is labeled Publix at Oconee Station, but Hand said in a telephone conversation on June 10 that he did not “have a fully executed lease with the grocery anchor” at that time.
In a text message on Thursday (1/15/2026), Hand said “We have an executed lease with Publix and anticipate breaking ground this spring on our shopping center.”
When the county rezoned the 31.8 acres owned by Jones in April of 2025 the concept plan showed the grocery store and adjoining shops and several other buildings, one labeled as a hotel or office building.
Other Grocery Stores
Grocery stores have been shown in conceptual plans for two other shopping centers approved for the U.S. 78 corridor by the Board of Commissioners.
In May of 2023 the Board of Commissioners approved a rezone for Oconee Crossing Shopping Center with frontage on Hog Mountain Road and on U.S. 78 northeast of Stripling’s General Store.
The plans called for a large grocery.
In September of 2021, the Board of Commissioners approved a rezone for a mixed used project on U.S. 78 between Dials Mill Road and Talus Street called Markets at Meadowlands that also included a grocery store.
Neither shopping center has moved forward with development.
In 2022, the Oconee County Board of Commissioners turned down the needed rezone request for a shopping center on the Oconee Connector between SR 316 and Mars Hill Road.
Property owner Deferred Tax LLC filed suit in Oconee County Superior Court just after that decision.
On Jan. 6 the Board of Commissioners approved a rezone it had initiated for the Deferred Tax property with a grocery store as an anchor, but Attorney Jeffrey DeLoach, representing Deferred Tax, told the commissioners his client rejected the rezone.
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