A Publix store. File photo by Harrison Keely, CC BY 4.0.
A new grocery store could be coming to Dumfries, and it may be a Publix. The Dumfries Town Council takes up conditional use permits for the project at its Oct. 6 meeting, after a rezoning approval and an abrupt adjournment on Sept. 15.
What the council already approved
On Sept. 15, the council approved the rezoning of 17439 and 17471 Old Stage Coach Road from limited industrial to general business district, InsideNoVa reports. The vote was unanimous. The applicant, North Carolina-based Bridgeline Development, also asked for several conditional use permits, but those were not decided that night because the council adjourned before reaching them.
What’s proposed
The plan calls for a 50,325-square-foot grocery store, a drive-thru pharmacy, an outdoor dining area, and about 6,700 square feet of additional retail, along with parking and site improvements. The council will consider the conditional use permits Tuesday.
The 15-acre site is a former auto salvage yard and construction staging area near Richmond Highway and Potomac Shores Parkway. Bridgeline is purchasing the property from four parties: the town, the Virginia Department of Transportation, HS Route One LLC, and MGB Properties VII LLC.
According to a town staff report, the project would generate about 200 jobs and help revitalize the corridor. Staff recommended the rezoning.
Noah Klein, a Venable LLP land use attorney working with Bridgeline, told the council on Sept. 15 that the project fills “a pretty critical need” for a grocer in the town, InsideNoVa reports.
Is it a Publix?
No grocer has been named. Bridgeline has developed Publix stores in the past, and the proposed store size matches Publix locations in several states, according to the Washington Business Journal, as cited by InsideNoVa.
That includes the Publix now under construction at Ashland Square, at the northwest corner of Dumfries and Spriggs roads near Montclair and Dale City. Publix announced that store in October 2025 as its first in Prince William County and, not counting a Stafford County store that opened in 2020, its first in Northern Virginia. It is also about 50,325 square feet and is expected to employ roughly 150 people. Publix has not given a firm opening date, though WHAT NOW DC reports it is expected sometime in 2027.
If Publix is the tenant in Dumfries, it would be a second planned Publix in Prince William County.
How the Sept. 15 meeting unfolded
After extensive discussion, Vice Mayor Monaé Nickerson moved to adjourn before any votes on the proposals. That motion failed, and the public hearing on the rezoning opened. After it closed, Chair Pro Tem Selonia Miles moved to adjourn again.
Following a back-and-forth with Town Attorney Sandra Robinson about what withdrawing a motion would mean for the remaining public hearings, Miles withdrew her motion and called a brief recess. When the council returned, Council Member Russell Young moved to approve the rezoning, and it passed unanimously. Miles then moved to adjourn again, and that motion passed, with only Mayor Derrick Wood dissenting.
“We were in the middle of doing business,” Wood told InsideNoVa, adding that he felt the council should have finished the agenda. Nickerson told InsideNoVa her motion was because of the late hour and not opposition to the project, and that she has told the grocer she supports its interest in Dumfries.
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