NORTH PORT – Costco Wholesale Corporation will open its long-awaited 157,000-square-foot warehouse store in the Wellen Park section of North Port on June 5.

Gasoline sales are already available, having started May 6.

The store will be the second Costco in Sarasota County and third in the region, along with stores at Sarasota Square Mall and State Road 64, off of Interstate 75 in Manatee County.

Costco also has a store off of Interstate 75 in Brandon and two in Lee County.

Anticipation for the Wellen Park Costco has been growing since September, 2021, when news of the retailer’s plans for a second Sarasota County store first broke.

The commitment was a major boon to the fortunes of both Sarasota County’s largest city and Wellen Park – one of the fastest-growing master-planned communities in the country.

“We are thrilled to welcome Costco to Wellen Park,” Rick Severance, president of Mattamy Homes’ Wellen Park Division, said in a prepared statement. “This marks a significant milestone in Wellen Park’s growth and underscores our appeal as a top destination in the region for both residents and businesses.

“Costco’s presence here enriches the shopping options available to our residents and also boosts our local economy through job creation,” he added. “This is a testament to the vibrant and thriving community we’ve committed to building in North Port, and we look forward to the added convenience and variety that Costco will bring to our residents.”

Where is the new Costco in North Port?

To get to the new store, plug 11700 Mezzo Drive in your GPS – that’s on the southeast side of a new roundabout on U.S. 41 that connects the highway with Mezzo Drive to the south and Tortuga Cay Drive to the north.

Costco Wholesale Corporation closed on purchase of the site from Manasota Beach Ranchlands LLLP for $5.9 million in October 2023.

The 240-square-foot fuel kiosk is already open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekends.

Once the warehouse store opens on June 5 it will likely mirror the operating hours of the one at Sarasota Square Mall – 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. weekdays; 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday; and 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

The North Port store is significantly larger than the Sarasota Square Costco, which is about 145,000 square feet, while the Bradenton location, which opened in 2019 at 805 Lighthouse Drive, is 155,000 square feet. 

It follows Costco’s trend of making larger stores.

What will the new store mean for North Port?

“First of all, it's going to add about 250 jobs in North Port and has several positive effects on our city from an economic development perspective,” said North Port Economic Development Division Manager Vinnie Mascarenhas.

Along with that job creation, Mascarenhas said the store will attract shoppers from Charlotte and DeSoto counties, and projected a boost for other businesses in the city, too.

“Everybody’s going to pick up on that rising tide that raises all boats, as far as businesses are concerned,” Mascarenhas said. “It means job creation, it means increased consumer spending, it means tax revenue, it means economic growth.”

Mascarenhas noted that the opening shows confidence in North Port’s economic environment as it moves closer to the 100,000 resident mark that will mean the end of its classification as a small city.

World Population Review estimates that North Port is already home to 94,711 people, based on its extrapolation of data provided by the 2020 U.S. Census and the University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research.

Earlier this year, MoneyGeek placed North Port No. 1 on its list of “Most Up and Coming Small Cities in the U.S," and No. 7 on its list of “15 Most Affordable and Safe Small Cities.”

With a five-year population growth of 28.4%, North Port was the fastest-growing city on the Up and Coming list. MoneyGeek also cited a 43% increase in housing units since 2017 and a 46% increase in median household income – to $78,587 – in that same time period.

“We’re going to close in on 100,000 residents within the next three years for sure,” Mascarenhas said. “From an economic development perspective this is also very important, it’s a quality of life issue.

She later added that Costco will provide more shopping options to city residents at lower prices, “so it’s definitely going to notch up our already pretty high quality of life.

“We expect on Wednesday, June 5, North Port is going to be fully invested on this Costco craze,” Mascarenhas said. “We’re looking forward to it.”

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Costco set to open second Sarasota County store June 5 in North Port