Southeast Palm Bay's Publix Plaza Is Turning Into a Place to Eat
October 29, 2026
October 29, 2026
Until this fall, Shoppes at Cypress Bay was a plaza built for short stops. It had a Publix, a McDonald's and a Jersey Mike's Subs at the northeast corner of Babcock Street and St. Johns Heritage Parkway, which suited a grocery run or a drive-thru lunch. Two new tenants change that. Joy Japan Sushi & Hibachi is a full-service restaurant with beer, wine and sake, and Tropical Smoothie Cafe has claimed a storefront a few doors down. Farther along Babcock, a coffee business that started out on a trailer now has its own sit-down café. On this side of the city, the new openings are places to sit down.
The plaza's original pitch was simple. The center was marketed as part of a larger commercial development, Cypress Bay Commercial Center, about 1.6 miles from the I-95 interchange at St. Johns Heritage Parkway. A 2023 roundup of Palm Bay projects by The Space Coast Rocket listed the site plan as approved on May 8, 2023. Publix lists the store at 9179 Babcock St. SE under the name Shoppes at Cypress Bay, and its liquor store has its own address at Suite 101.
The first tenants matched that grocery focus. Every one of them was built for speed.
| Business | Address at 9179 Babcock St. SE | Status as of late October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Publix Super Market | Main storefront | Open |
| Publix Liquors | Suite 101 | Open |
| McDonald's | In the center | Open |
| Jersey Mike's Subs | In the center | Open |
| Tropical Smoothie Cafe | Unit 102 | Listed as "Opening Soon," no date posted |
| Joy Japan Sushi & Hibachi | Suite 105 | Online ordering lists pickup starting Oct. 25 |
The bottom two rows are what changed. One of them is the plaza's first restaurant with servers.
Owner Xudong Zheng told Business Debut that the Palm Bay restaurant will run as a full-service operation serving ramen, sushi, sashimi and hibachi, with beer, wine and sake. He said the menu centers on rice and noodle dishes. This is his second location. The first Joy Japan has operated in St. Cloud for almost three years, and Zheng told the outlet he plans to open more.
WhatNow reported in mid-September that plan review paperwork had been filed for the restaurant under the name Joy Japan Palm Bay LLC. It also described the St. Cloud menu at 2215 Nolte Road, the best preview of what Palm Bay can expect. That menu includes cooked rolls like the Mexican Roll, made with tempura shrimp and cucumber and topped with avocado, eel sauce and spicy mayo. It also has raw rolls like the Joy Roll, which combines spicy tuna, snow crab and asparagus.
On timing, the restaurant's own ordering page is the newest public signal. It lists the address as 9179 Babcock Street SE #105 and shows pickup starting Oct. 25 at noon. Zheng had told Business Debut in late September that the team was aiming for October and would post the exact date on the restaurant's website, so check joyjapanpalmbay.com before planning a dine-in visit.
The ordering page also shows the restaurant's weekday rhythm:
A split lunch-and-dinner schedule is what you'd expect from a restaurant that wants you seated for a meal. Until now, nothing else in the plaza ran that way.
Tropical Smoothie Cafe's location page lists 9179 Babcock Street, Unit 102, under an "Opening Soon" banner. It gives no date. Treat it as a commitment to the space, not something you can visit next week. Once it opens, the plaza will have a midday option between a drive-thru and a full sit-down meal. The national chain sells sandwiches, wraps and smoothies, with ordering through its app.
For now the plaza is in between. Its two newest tenants are both posted publicly, and neither had settled into regular hours as of this week.
In April 2026, the Orlando Business Journal reported that the Shoppes at Cypress Bay property sold for nearly $20 million. The paper framed the deal as part of Publix's continued investment in the region.
Six months later, the empty suites are filling with restaurants rather than more quick-service counters. The Publix brings people to the corner every day, and a restaurant with table service gives them a reason to stay past checkout. The October openings show which way the leasing is going after a sale of that size.
The plaza's shift from counter to table has a parallel elsewhere on Babcock. Anchor & Bean began as a mobile coffee company based in Palm Bay. Its website calls it a faith-based business working from a walk-through trailer and an espresso cart. It serves weddings, corporate events, churches, schools and community gatherings across Brevard and Indian River counties, from Malabar and Grant-Valkaria up to Titusville and down to Vero Beach. The company takes its name from Hebrews 6:19, which its site quotes: "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure."
In September, the business opened its first brick-and-mortar location at 6003 Babcock St. SE. Florida Today reported it was serving customers by Sept. 14. The paper's September restaurant roundup described it as a sit-down café serving specialty coffee drinks and pastries. It was the only Palm Bay opening on a month's list that otherwise covered Suntree, Merritt Island, Melbourne and Cocoa Beach.
The trailer used to come to an event and leave when it was over. The café keeps set hours in one spot. At opening, Florida Today listed them as 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, closed Sunday. New cafés often adjust their schedules in the first few months, so check the Anchor & Bean Facebook page for current hours.
Taken together, the posted hours give southeast Palm Bay a full weekday of sit-down options along one road:
The only gap in the day is that hour from 3 to 4. Tropical Smoothie Cafe is the tenant most likely to fill it once Unit 102 opens.
Saturdays work a little differently, since Anchor & Bean opens at 9 a.m. That lines up with the next few weekends on the City of Palm Bay calendar:
For households near St. Johns Heritage Parkway heading to any of these events, Babcock now has a coffee stop on the way out and a sushi dinner on the way home.
If you live in southeast Palm Bay and are thinking about what new shops and restaurants near home mean for your own plans, I'm glad to go over what's opening and what's still in the works. Ryan Reilly works across the Space Coast, including the newer communities off Babcock and St. Johns Heritage Parkway. Let's Connect.
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