For a long time, there wasn’t much shopping happening at an old shopping complex in the 200 block of East Nine Mile Road.
But a sleepy strip mall that once housed a long-closed K-Mart, a Planet Fitness gym and a rotating cast of fast food restaurants will soon become a major Pensacola shopping hub when Costco opens it doors.
Construction for the highly anticipated 172,580-square-foot Costco at 225 E. Nine Mile Road is officially underway, and Pensacola can hardly wait another minute for the store’s $1.50 hot dog combos and high-quality Kirkland products.
Costco was given the green light in August to move forward with the monumental task of constructing the new membership warehouse club, which will also include a liquor store, tire center and gas station.
Since receiving approval, Costco has demolished an old shopping center near the corner of Chemstrand and East Nine Mile roads to make way for the new Pensacola store. AJ’s Seafood and Grill and Wells Fargo Bank, which Costco will be sandwiched between, remain intact. The strip previously included a former Kmart store that permanently closed, and a Planet Fitness gym, which has since relocated.
Now that the demolition is complete, Southeast Industrial Construction can begin building the superstore and has been actively working on-site.
Costco officially set its sights on Pensacola in June of 2024, when it filed its first development proposal. They went through several submissions before finally receiving the DRC’s go-ahead to plant roots in the Pensacola area.
Costco is not just any ordinary grocery store, and has developed a cult following across hundreds of locations worldwide, offering a wide selection of merchandise ranging from groceries, furniture and electronics to pet insurance, bottled water delivery and travel packages.
Future customers can start getting excited, as Costco stores are known to have a quick turnaround once construction begins. It takes 110 days to build a Costco store, according to their 30-year partner, MG2.
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, in June of 2024 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 of 2024 and painted a clearer picture of the project, but Costco still didn’t receive a development order from the DRC.
Another set of site plan drawings was filed with Escambia County in March of 2025, making 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, 2025, and the final set was received in August 2025. 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.
Can you still shop at Costco without being a member?
While customers need to provide proof of membership to shop in-store, Costco allows users to shop online without a membership. To compensate, the store will add a 5% surcharge to your purchase. Costco’s pharmacy is also open to everyone.
According to Costco’s website, non-members can use gifted Costco Shop Cards to make in-store purchases, but they would need to be accompanied by a Costco member, and shop cards can only be purchased by Costco members. They can be used to shop warehouse goods and access the Costco gas pumps.
There are some fun online-only Costco products to score as well, such as a 68-piece Dorm Room Snack Box, frozen Giordano’s Chicago deep dish stuffed pizza, or a starter pack of restaurant-quality Xiao Long Bao Soup Dumplings.
Fast facts about Costco
Contributing: Pensacola News Journal reporter Edward Bunch III contributed to this report.
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This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Costco replacing long-closed Kmart on Nine Mile. What to know
Reporting by Brittany Misencik, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
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