Publix Super Markets bought property that includes its store in Carolina Beach this month for more than $21.7 million, according to New Hanover County property tax records.

The Carolina Beach purchase involves 10.7 acres that hold the 46,000-square-foot Publix and six units in the Publix Commons at Federal Point center, 1018 N. Lake Park Blvd. The transaction also included 2.4 undeveloped acres at 1001 St. Joseph St. that could hold buildings in the future.

"When we have an opportunity to acquire a Publix anchored center, we’d evaluate and look to make a purchase providing it meets our criteria and makes sense to do so," said Kimberly Reynolds, community relations manager for the Charlotte Division of Publix Super Markets, in an email Monday. 

The Carolina Beach Publix store opened in June last year. Other tenants in the shopping center are Salty Chic Boutique, Ocean Nails and Sea Coast Rentals, according to a marketing flyer by developer GHK Cape Fear Development.

The seller in the June 10 transaction was Carolina Beach Development Company 1 LLC, a GHK Cape Fear entity, represented in the deal by Vin Wells, Brian Eckel and Gordon Kolb. 

"We have developed [Publix] stores in Wilmington, Carolina Beach, Kill Devil Hills and High Point," Wells said in an email. "Publix is great to work with, and we feel very fortunate to be a preferred developer for them."

GHK Cape Fear developed the first Publix in the Wilmington area, which opened on Bragg Drive off South College Road in 2016.

"Publix has demonstrated they are a great retailer and passionately focused on customer value," Wells said. "They are recognized as one of the best grocery anchors in the country and certainly add tremendous value to the centers in which they locate."

Publix recently opened another store in the Cape Fear region. Early this month, Oak Island was one of two places in the U.S. (the other was in Alabama) where new Publix stores began welcoming customers after the grocery chain halted such openings because of the coronavirus pandemic.