Publix Super Markets Inc. bought a shopping center in Charlotte Harbor as part of an increasing trend by the grocer to purchase the developments its stores anchor.

A subsidiary of Publix bought the 44,696-square-foot shopping center on Tamiami Trail for $4.7 million, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune said. The center had been owned by a Jersey City, N.J., investor named Richard Linder.

Last year, Publix bought an 84,000-square-foot shopping center in Venice for $15.67 million and retail space and land on Longboat Key for $2.35 million, the Herald-Tribune said.

One of the 10 largest grocery chains in the country by volume, Lakeland-based Publix operates 1,068 stores in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee, the Herald-Tribune said.