The Sprouts Farmers Market coming to Carrollwood will open on Feb. 22.

The 27,000-square-foot niche grocery store, located at 15110 N. Dale Mabry Highway in the Carrollwood Commons Shopping Center, will be the first Sprouts store to open in Florida and the Tampa Bay region.

The long-anticipated specialty grocer released a list of eight new store locations that are expected to open in the first quarter of 2017 back in September, and Tampa was one of them. Sprouts Farmers Market is a speciality grocery known for its affordable assortment of natural and organic foods. Its stores are about half the size of a typical Publix. The Phoenix-based company has expanded across the country at an aggressive rate. Rumors about Sprouts entering the Florida market have circulated among real estate brokers for years.

Read more: Sprouts Farmers Market to open Carrollwood store next year

Sprouts will also open a 32,500 square foot store at Palm Harbor Commons, at U.S. 19 and Nebraska Avenue. A news release announcing the new store did not give an opening date. Other spots could be in Brandon and South Tampa.

Sprouts joins tenants like Target, GNC and Party City in the Carrollwood Commons shopping center.

The grocer will hire more than 100 full and part-time employees to staff the new store. Interested applicants can apply online at sprouts.com/careers or call 1-866-925-2396.

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Sprouts enters the Florida market at a time when many other organic grocery chains are looking to expand here, too. Lucky's Market, a Colorado-based organic chain, will open a store at Tyrone Square Mall in St. Petersburg. Earth Fare, another chain known for its healthy foods, opened its first store in Tampa Bay at the Seminole City Center.

Contact Justine Griffin at jgriffin@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8467. Follow @SunBizGriffin.