Drive the corner of US-17 and Lanvale Road on any given afternoon and you will find silt fencing, a graded pad, and a sign that has said "coming soon" for longer than most of the neighborhood's newest residents have owned their homes. This is the future site of the Shoppes at Savannah Branch, and it sits at the same intersection that gives Lanvale Forest its name. For a neighborhood built by McKee Homes with sidewalks, streetlights, and a modest community pool, that corner has become the thing everyone half-watches on the drive home.
Here is what most of the chatter misses. The retail everyone is waiting for still has no confirmed move-in date. The public amenity that will actually change your fall calendar already opened, and it has a full schedule running through mid-October.
The Store Everyone Is Waiting For
The Publix planned for Savannah Branch has been a known quantity since January 2023, when Marietta, Georgia-based developer Columbia Properties first floated a roughly 142,000-square-foot shopping center directly across US-17 from Brunswick Forest. Leland's economic development director told the town's Economic Development Committee at the time that a grocery anchor was likely, though Publix itself declined to confirm anything.
That confirmation came two years later. In February 2025, Publix signed a lease for a 50,325-square-foot store at the northeast corner of US-17 and Lanvale Road, with plans to employ about 140 associates. Marshalls and Ulta Beauty are also confirmed for the center. But the company's own statement was blunt: an opening timeframe had not yet been determined. Some builder marketing in the area has floated a late-2026 opening, but that is a projection, not a lease term, and nothing public has moved that estimate to a hard date since the original announcement.
If you have been timing a grocery run around "any day now," it is worth resetting that expectation. The land is moving. The calendar is not fixed.
The Park That Already Delivered
While Savannah Branch sits in a construction phase with no firm finish line, Founders Park, a few minutes away at 113 Town Hall Drive, has already reopened, and it reopened bigger than it left. The renovation added an amphitheater and event lawn, an inclusive playground, a splash pad, fitness stations, a veterans memorial, and a picnic shelter, all threaded together by paths connecting to the town's greenway network.
The project was not quick. The town adopted the original master plan back in March 2020, and construction that began in late 2023 was supposed to wrap within a year. It ran long after town officials flagged an alignment issue with the amphitheater and raised concerns about parts of the original contractor's work. The town eventually closed out and terminated that contract, finished the remaining pieces itself, and gave residents a first look at the playground and paths during December 2025's Leland in Lights. The amphitheater, the last piece to fall into place, opened for good on July 31, 2026, when more than 2,000 people showed up to watch The Embers play the park's grand opening concert.
That turnout was not a one-time novelty. The town launched its "Live in Leland" concert series the same night, and the schedule has kept expanding all summer and into fall.
What's Actually on the Calendar This Fall
For a neighborhood whose own amenities stop at a pool and a clubhouse, having a town-funded events lineup this dense within a short drive changes what a normal Tuesday or Saturday can look like. The last two weeks already made the case. On Sept. 17, Leland Fire, Leland Police, and the Brunswick County Sheriff's Office squared off in the fourth annual Battle of the Bowls, a chili cook-off benefiting Manna Ministries, with Michael Schott playing live and food trucks including Fitz's Biscuits and Revival Roadside on site. Two nights later, on Sept. 19, the park ran a Dirty Dancing movie night, with dance lessons from Tracie Rabalais at 7 p.m. ahead of the 7:40 p.m. screening, splash pad and playground open the whole time.
Here is what's still ahead before Halloween.
| Date | Event | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Oct. 1 | The British Invaders | Live concert, 6 p.m. |
| Oct. 3 | Lend a Hand | Community-wide service day, 8 a.m. to noon |
| Oct. 6 | National Night Out | Leland Police, Leland Fire, Brunswick County Sheriff's Office, Oak Island Police Department, and Coastal Horizons, 5 to 8 p.m. |
| Oct. 17 | Muppets in Space | Movie screening followed by a stargazing session hosted by the Cape Fear Astronomical Society |
Every concert night in the Live in Leland series runs with a beer garden pouring Leland Brewing Company and Brunswick Beer and Cider, and admission across the series has been free. The Leland Fall Festival and another round of Leland in Lights are both still to come later in the year, with the light display expected to run into early January.
Why the Five-Minute Drive Matters More Than the HOA Line Item
Lanvale Forest's own dues are modest. One recent listing on Heart Wood Loop Road put the annual HOA at $584, which covers a shared pool and the basics, not amphitheaters or splash pads. That is not a knock on the neighborhood. It is the tradeoff every buyer in an established, moderately priced McKee Homes community makes: lower carrying costs in exchange for fewer private amenities.
What changes that math is proximity to public investment rather than private investment. A homeowner here is not paying HOA dues large enough to fund a veterans memorial or a fitness circuit, but the town just finished building one within a few minutes of the neighborhood entrance, and it is free to use on any day of the week, not just event nights. That is worth more to daily life than the retail corner that gets more attention, because it is already operating while the retail corner is still graded dirt.
The Food Options Are Filling In Too
The restaurant landscape around Lanvale Forest is thickening on a separate but overlapping timeline. McAlister's Deli is finishing a buildout on New Pointe Boulevard that started with a March building permit, and staff training was scheduled to begin September 22, with the doors expected to open about a week after that. Little Caesars is taking over the former GameStop space inside the Shoppes at Westgate as a take-out-only location. Texas Roadhouse has confirmed a 2026 opening in Leland Town Center, according to C&S Commercial Properties.
None of these openings require a trip past the Savannah Branch construction site. They sit closer to the Leland Town Center corridor, which means the neighborhood's dining options are expanding on a faster track than its grocery options, even though both projects got attention around the same time.
The Short Version
If you live in Lanvale Forest and have been waiting for the Publix to open before you feel like the area has changed, you may be waiting through most of 2026 without a confirmed date. If you want to feel the change now, Founders Park has already given you a summer's worth of free programming, a beer garden with two local breweries, and a stargazing night with an astronomy club still on the books, all within a few minutes of your driveway. The corner named after your street is still under construction. The park down the road is not.
For neighbors who eventually do want a read on what a home here is actually worth, or who are weighing whether a move within Leland makes sense once Savannah Branch finally opens, Team Gale knows this corridor block by block. You can browse the Lanvale Forest neighborhood page any time, or call (910) 541-1212 to talk through what's changing nearby before you decide what it means for you.