Ask someone in Davenport where the new Publix is, and the answer depends entirely on which end of US-27 they drive. Ask about the new Walmart, and you'll get a different answer from a different set of neighbors. That's not a coincidence of geography. It's the shape of what's actually happening here in 2026.
Davenport isn't filling in from the center outward the way a lot of growing towns do. The new development is landing at both ends of the same highway at once, with almost nothing new opening in between. If you live near ChampionsGate or Posner Park, your summer looked like grocery store openings and fast-casual bowls. If you live closer to the Haines City line, your summer looked like bulldozers clearing ground for a warehouse club. Both are true. Neither tells the whole story on its own.
The Growth Behind the Rush
Start with the number that explains why any of this is happening now. Davenport's population grew from 9,043 residents at the 2020 Census to an estimated 18,110 in 2025, according to Census Bureau figures reported by the Tampa Bay Business Journal. That's not steady growth. That's the city roughly doubling in five years.
Compare that to Polk County as a whole, which grew about 20.7 percent over the same stretch, reaching an estimated 874,790 residents in 2025. Davenport didn't just grow faster than its county. It grew close to five times faster. Retail development almost always lags residential rooftops by a few years, because permitting, site work, and construction take time to catch up to a population curve. What's opening this year is the visible edge of that lag finally closing.
The I-4 End: Groceries, Bowls, and Lumber
The northern cluster, the stretch of US-27 closest to Posner Park and the I-4 interchange, is where the grocery and dining gap closed first.
Publix opened its newest Central Florida store at the Shoppes at Citrus Creek, 42660 US Highway 27, on June 25. In the company's own announcement, Publix media relations manager Hannah Herring framed it simply:
"Opening this store is about becoming part of the everyday moments that matter to our customers. Our associates are ready to welcome the community to their new Davenport Publix with the service and care people count on us for."
Four days before that, on June 21, CAVA opened its own Davenport location near I-4, part of a national expansion that's brought the fast-casual Mediterranean chain into more Florida suburbs. The opening came with a Community Day fundraiser for Feeding Tampa Bay, and the company said the new store would hire between 25 and 40 local employees.
Then came the lumber and hardware piece. Home Depot is building a store at the northeast corner of US 27 and Davenport Boulevard, in the same northern corridor. The retailer posted a $2.35 million performance bond in July covering roads, drainage, and other public improvements tied to the project, with the work required to wrap by May 29, 2027 unless Polk County grants an extension. It's the kind of detail that only shows up in county bond filings, but it tells you something useful: this isn't a rumor or a rendering. Money is already on the table.
A few blocks over, at Posner Village and Posner Commons, two smaller additions round out the north side's build-out. EōS Fitness signed a lease for a 40,500-square-foot gym at Posner Village, expected to open this year. And in Posner Commons, the Sembler Company filed plans to double the size of its Ashley Furniture store next to the movie theater, a sign that even the already-built retail nodes are still expanding in place.
The Haines City End: A Club Davenport Never Had
Drive south along the same highway, toward the Polk County line and Heart of Florida Hospital, and you find an entirely different kind of project, on an entirely different clock.
Construction is underway on a Walmart Supercenter and Sam's Club near Holly Hill Grove Road, on a 56-acre site purchased in April 2025 for more than $23 million. It will be the region's first Sam's Club. Right now, the closest one is in Lakeland, which means this project is closing a real distance gap, not just adding another familiar name to a crowded corridor. The new Supercenter will sit about 4.5 miles north of the existing Walmart in Haines City. As of August, the City of Davenport had publicly confirmed the retailers and construction underway along that stretch, according to trade coverage from Extended Reach USA.
The most specific new detail came on August 6, when GrowthSpotter reported that Whataburger is planning a location on US 27 in Davenport, directly in front of the new Walmart and Sam's Club. It would be the Texas chain's fourth Central Florida location and Polk County's first. The 24/7 burger restaurant, at just over 3,000 square feet, still needs a Level-2 site plan review from Polk County's Growth Management division after developers met with the county on July 22.
Seven Weeks, Two Ends of the Same Highway
Line these up by date and the compression is hard to miss.
- June 21 – CAVA opens near I-4, the north end's newest fast-casual option.
- June 25 – Publix opens at the Shoppes at Citrus Creek, four days later, same end of town.
- July – Home Depot posts its performance bond and begins the public-improvement work at Davenport Boulevard and US-27.
- Early August – The City of Davenport publicly confirms Walmart and Sam's Club construction is underway near Holly Hill Grove Road, on the opposite end of the corridor.
- August 6 – Whataburger announces its Davenport location fronting that same Walmart and Sam's Club site.
That's five separate milestones, from two unrelated retail projects, landing within about seven weeks of each other on opposite ends of the same road. Nothing forced that timing. It's what happens when a five-year population curve finally catches up to the retailers watching it.
What's Open Now and What's Still Coming
If you're trying to plan around any of this, the practical distinction matters more than the headline. Publix and CAVA are open today, both on the I-4 end of town. Home Depot has a bond posted and a hard deadline of May 2027, but the store itself isn't open yet. The Walmart, Sam's Club, and Whataburger site is still under construction, with Whataburger specifically still working through county review as of late July. EōS Fitness and the expanded Ashley Furniture are both described as targeting this year, without a confirmed date attached to either.
None of this changes the basic geography, though. If your daily errands run through Posner Park or ChampionsGate, the upgrades you'll notice first are a grocery store, a fast-casual lunch spot, and eventually a hardware store, all within a few minutes of each other. If your errands run closer to the county line, you're waiting on a warehouse club and a burger drive-through that will cut a real drive to Lakeland down to a few miles.
Both halves of Davenport are getting something they didn't have a year ago. They're just not getting it in the same place, on the same schedule, or from the same shopping trip.
Living in Davenport means keeping track of a town that's changing block by block, not all at once. If you're weighing whether now's the right time to buy, sell, or just want a straight answer about what's happening in your part of town, Sanchez Homes is a phone call away, and always happy to talk shop about the neighborhood before talking about a transaction.
