PORT ST. LUCIE — After years of anticipation from residents, Port St. Lucie has finalized a deal that clears the way for a Costco retail store to be built in the city.
City officials agreed March 9 to sell about 23 acres of land in the Southern Grove area to Costco Wholesale Corp. for $6 million. The site, located east of Southwest Village Parkway and south of the newly constructed Southwest Marshall Parkway, is planned to include a roughly 170,000-square-foot warehouse store and gas station.
The store will sit next to a massive Costco distribution facility already under construction in the area. The 1.87-million-square-foot cold and dry storage depot was announced about two years ago and is expected to serve as a distribution hub for Costco operations across Florida.
Before construction on the retail store can begin, some final work around the site still needs to be completed, including finishing a key roadway serving the development.
Jennifer Davis, director of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, said the road project is nearly finished.
“At this point, the road can be driven on. We do anticipate that will be complete by the end of March and then also, according to an update this morning, they're working on the landscaping as well, but that's not necessary for the road to be complete,” Davis said.
Once that infrastructure work is finished, the timeline for building the store itself could move quickly.
Davis said Costco typically moves rapidly once vertical construction begins.
“I asked the question a few months ago of their team of what is their normal development timeline. From the point where they actually go vertical, it's about 130 days, so it's actually a pretty quick timeline for construction,” Davis said.
City leaders say the project reflects years of requests from residents who have pushed for the wholesale retailer to open a location in Port St. Lucie.
Mayor Shannon Martin said interest in the project surged again once the land sale appeared on the city’s meeting agenda.
“I know our residents are very, very excited. Of course, when the agenda came out last week, within minutes, it was all over social media about Costco coming,” Martin said. “I think there was some confusion, too, about whether it was actually the retail store versus the depot, but here we are, and now we are getting that retail store that we've been waiting so long for.”
The retail store will accompany the large distribution depot already rising nearby. City officials say the combined facilities are expected to bring more than 500 jobs to the community.
Additional details about construction schedules and timelines are expected to be released by the city at a later date.