Whole Foods Fills In the Last Big Errand at the Costco Center on SR 64

Before Nov. 5, a Lakewood Ranch household that wanted a Costco run, a Target run and a Whole Foods run had to drive in two directions. Costco and Target sit at State Road 64 and I-75. The nearest Whole Foods stores were south, on University Parkway and in downtown Sarasota. That changed when Manatee County's first Whole Foods Market opened at 7295 State Road 64 East, in the same center as the warehouse club.

The Marketplace at Heritage Harbour now carries a bulk store, a big-box general store and a specialty grocer in one parking field. Developer Edgewood Properties places the center at the northeast corner of I-75 and SR 64, about a mile from Lakewood Ranch, with more than 500,000 square feet of retail. It filled in over seven years, and the order of those openings explains why this one matters.

Seven years, one anchor at a time

Costco came first, in 2019. For several years it was the reason to make the trip. Restaurants and other retailers followed slowly, and then more quickly. The Bradenton Herald tracked the openings as they came.

CAVA and Panda Express also count among the center's established restaurants, according to a May 2026 report by the Bradenton Herald, carried by the Tampa Bay Times.

Nearly every opening since 2023 has been a place you stop for one thing: dinner, sporting goods, craft supplies. Target in August 2025 was the first anchor since Costco to cover a whole household list. Whole Foods is the second. A center you used to visit for a single purpose can now handle the weekly grocery run, the monthly bulk run and the forgotten-shampoo run on one visit.

Chick-fil-A is the newest restaurant on the list. Its announcement, dated Oct. 8, 2026, set service to begin Oct. 15 at 6 a.m. at 7283 State Road 64 East, with a drive-thru. Operator Jonathan Ith said in the release, "Opening this restaurant here is both a privilege and a way to give back to the community."

What the 42,000 square feet holds

The new store is the 40th Whole Foods in Florida. Hundreds of people lined up for opening morning, and Your Observer reported that the aisles were packed within minutes of the doors opening. The first 300 customers got a complimentary tote bag. The store page and the opening-day coverage list these features:

• Florida products: more than 450 items sourced in Florida, including raw, unfiltered orange blossom honey
• Counters: full-service meat and seafood, and a cheese counter run by trained cheesemongers
• Wine and beer: more than 650 wines and 250 craft beers
• Prepared foods: a hot bar, salad bars, pizza, gourmet sandwiches and fresh-rolled sushi
• Amazon services: an assisted Amazon Counter for package pickup and returns, free returns on eligible Amazon items, and a self-service returns kiosk
• Hours: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily

With the Amazon counter, you can drop off a return during the grocery run and skip a separate trip to ship it. Whole Foods also said in its October announcement that grocery pickup would come "shortly after opening."

Where the Whole Foods run used to go

Until this month, Lakewood Ranch shoppers drove south or west for this kind of store. Whole Foods' own pages list the University Station store at 5298 University Parkway and the Sarasota store at 1451 1st Street downtown. Both stay open, so the change is about which store is closer, not which is available.

For a home in Lakewood Ranch's southern villages near University Parkway, University Station may still be the shorter drive. For homes north of State Road 70, and especially for the northern villages, the Heritage Harbour store puts specialty groceries on the same trip as a Costco run.

In November, the turn lanes decide the drive

The center's location next to I-75 is also where SR 64 roadwork is concentrated. The Sarasota/Manatee MPO's Traffic Watch for the week of Nov. 1, 2026 lists three projects on this stretch.

1. SR 64 at Upper Manatee River Road and Lakewood Ranch Boulevard. Manatee County started water-main work at this intersection on Aug. 3, with completion expected in late November. While the work continues, the eastbound dual left-turn lanes from SR 64 onto Upper Manatee River Road are closed. That affects drivers leaving the center, heading east and turning north.
2. SR 64 at Uihlein Road. A developer's crews are building a roundabout and adding lanes at this intersection through the end of November 2026. The MPO suggests allowing extra travel time or using another route.
3. SR 64 from west of County Road 675 to Wingate Road. The Florida Department of Transportation plans to start milling and resurfacing this roughly 10.9-mile stretch in late fall, with completion expected in spring 2027, weather permitting. Expect temporary daytime and overnight lane closures and lane shifts.

FDOT publishes the same schedules in its weekly District One Roadwatch. Both the county and the developer are aiming for late November, so both are scheduled to wrap up before December. If you're going on a weekday this month, the most direct route from much of Lakewood Ranch is still north on Lakewood Ranch Boulevard and west on SR 64. Manatee County's Heritage Harbour development records list a northbound left-turn lane at that intersection as a completed improvement.

The storefronts still filling in

Whole Foods adds the last big anchor, but smaller spaces around it are still being filled. Recent Bradenton Herald reporting and the brands' own pages list these tenants for the Marketplace:

• Fresh Kitchen at 7105 SR 64 East. Its location page says "coming soon." The Tampa-born bowl chain already has a location at The Shoppes at University Town Center.
• U-Yee Sushi & Grill II, a nearly 1,500-square-foot second location for the sushi and hibachi restaurant that opened at University Parkway and Lorraine Road in 2020. It is planned for the building north of LongHorn Steakhouse.
• Pure Green Juice Bar, planned for a four-unit building next to Whole Foods
• Lucky Goat Coffee Co. at 7227 SR 64 East, Unit 104, listed on the roaster's locations page as "coming soon"
• Cold Stone Creamery, which signed for a 1,588-square-foot unit next to Mister O1 Extraordinary Pizza
• Qdoba Mexican Eats and Mister O1 Extraordinary Pizza, both described as planned tenants in the Herald's Oct. 14 report on the Whole Foods opening

One name has dropped off. Portillo's, the Chicago-area chain that had once filed paperwork for a store here, no longer appears on the center's leasing plan.

Most of the incoming tenants are coffee, juice, bowls, sushi and ice cream, the kinds of places people stop at between other errands. Pure Green's planned spot is in the building beside Whole Foods, so a juice or smoothie stop will sit right next to the grocery run once it opens.

I watch the SR 64 corridor closely because it shapes daily life on Lakewood Ranch's north side, from the grocery run to the drive onto I-75. If you're new to the area and figuring out which villages put errands like these within a short drive, or a longtime owner wondering how new shopping nearby fits into a future sale, Arlene Buckmaster is glad to talk through it. Let's Connect.