After spending more than a year deliberating with Escambia County officials, Costco has finally been approved to build its first store in the Pensacola area.
After winning approval from the county’s Development Review Committee on Wednesday, the retailer can now move forward with building a 172,580-square-foot store at 225 E. Nine Mile Road that will include a liquor store, tire center and a gas station.
Costco officially set its eyes on the Pensacola region in June of 2024 when they filed its first development proposal. They went through five submissions before finally getting the go-ahead from the DRC to plant its roots in the Pensacola area. Costco still has to go through some additional review phases such as permitting before they can start building.
Costco is a membership warehouse club with a cult following that has hundreds of locations worldwide and offers a wide selection of merchandise ranging from groceries, furniture and electronics to pet insurance, bottled water delivery and travel packages.
Before they can build, Costco must first demolish the existing building on the corner of Chemstrand and East Nine Mile roads. They also plan improvements to the existing plazas’ parking lot and entryways. The warehouse will have 830 parking spaces.
Planet Fitness, the last remaining tenant in the building, is opening another gym across the street that they’re aiming to debut before the end of the year.
The company previously told the News Journal they plan to open their new gym in early September and will close the existing Planet Fitness shortly before the new one opens, which will likely be a week before the debut.
Planet Fitness’ departure will make way for Costco’s entrance, but not everything will change inside the plaza. Some of the existing, freestanding businesses inside the plaza will remain, such as Dairy Queen, Sam’s Seafood and Wells Fargo.
Where will the new Costco be built in Pensacola?
Costco’s first Pensacola store will open at 225 E. Nine Mile Road.
Costco Pensacola opening date
There is not yet a projected opening date for the store.
Costco’s policy is to not comment on future stores until two-to-three months out from its opening date.
It takes 110 days to build a Costco store, according to their 30-year partner MG2, so the retailer could still open its first local store this year.
Why did the Pensacola Costco take so long?
Costco spent over a year deliberating with Escambia County officials and ironing out their plans for the Nine Mile Road store.
Escambia County initially received an application from Thomas Engineering, a Tampa-based engineering firm, last June on behalf of Costco to develop its first Pensacola store inside an existing shopping center on Nine Mile Road.
The group resubmitted its proposal in October and painted a clearer picture of the potential project, but Costco still didn’t receive a development order from the DRC.
Another set of site plan drawings were filed to Escambia County in March that made slight revisions to the previous proposal. Developers reduced the proposed number of parking spots to 830 and added plans to create bike racks next to the liquor store.
Escambia County received the fourth set of plans on July 14, which is a similar proposal as the previous submission, while the latest set was received in August. After the fourth submission in July, an Escambia County spokesperson told the News Journal that Costco’s plans were being held up by state regulatory items at the time.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Costco finally gets approval from Escambia County to build Pensacola warehouse store
Reporting by Edward Bunch III, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
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