Detwiler’s Farm Market plans new Manatee County store

A popular family-owned grocery chain plans to open a new store in east Manatee County. Detwiler’s Farm Market will launch its latest shop in a retail plaza along State Road 64.

The new Detwiler’s will occupy 43,000 square feet within Braden River Plaza at 4502 E. State Road 64. Formerly, the space was home to Office Depot and before that, it was a Winn-Dixie supermarket.

The Bradenton store will mark the seventh for Detwiler's. The other six Detwiler’s Farm Market locations across Manatee and Sarasota counties include: 53rd Avenue West in Bradenton; U.S. 301 in Palmetto; Palmer Boulevard in east Sarasota; Clark Road in South Sarasota; the U.S. 41 bypass in Venice; and Lockwood Ridge Road near the Manatee-Sarasota line.

Those locations are “packed, and we're trying to make more room for more customers," says Detwiler’s President Sam Detwiler, who announced the new State Road 64 store in a Facebook video alongside his father, Detwiler’s CEO Henry Detwiler Sr.

“I feel like a farmer. I’m planting seeds,” Henry Detwiler says in the video.

Detwiler's averages about 100,000 customers a week and has been looking to expand north, south and east, Henry Detwiler — a 2025 Business Observer Top Entrepreneur — said in an interview this spring.

The family-owned grocery chain opened its first store on Palmer Boulevard in 2009 and its latest location in December 2023 in Bradenton. Detwiler’s also opened a 133,000-square-foot distribution center in Palmetto in September. East Manatee County-based Benderson Development helped build the distribution center, and the prolific developer and retail landlord also owns Braden River Plaza, which contains tenants like Tractor Supply Co. and Gecko’s.

"We get to come in here and design a new Detwiler's for you," Henry Detwiler says in the video in front of the Braden River Plaza.

The new Detwiler's store will feature a butcher, fresh produce, seafood, bakery, sub shop, wellness products, deli and ice cream shop. It will also have "new offerings unique to this location," according to a statement. A spokesperson for Detwiler's says in a Nov. 13 email that the company is still finalizing plans and is not ready to disclose the unique offerings yet.

“As a family, we are excited to continue growing,” Henry Detwiler says in the statement. “We’re so thankful for our loyal customers who make this growth possible and for the opportunity to serve even more people in our community.”

The Braden River Plaza store is expected to open by fall 2026.

“Everything takes time” to grow, Henry Detwiler says, "when you plant those seeds."