Costco eyes mid-2025 to open store in Stuart; apartments, shopping, dining to follow

Keith Burbank, Treasure Coast Newspapers
Updated ·2 min read

STUART — The long-awaited and much-anticipated Costco store here should be opening its doors in spring 2025, developers said.

The development — comprising a Costco Wholesale Corp. store, 18-pump gas station, stores, restaurants and 378 apartment units — is being built on 49 acres on Kanner Highway just south of Martin County High School. A public road, built and paid for by developers, will run through the project, connecting Kanner Highway and Willoughby Boulevard.

The site has been cleared and graded, and crews have created lakes and retention basins.

The store and the connector road will be the first elements built, Tom Cosgriff, project manager for developer M&M Realty, said in a statement.

The new Costco store on Kanner Highway in Stuart is expected to open spring 2025, developers said. The store and a new road connecting Willoughby Boulevard to Kanner Highway are to be built first.
The new Costco store on Kanner Highway in Stuart is expected to open spring 2025, developers said. The store and a new road connecting Willoughby Boulevard to Kanner Highway are to be built first.

The City Commission approved the project unanimously in August 2021, but it was held up for nearly two years by legal challenges.

A resident question the city's land-use designation for the property, and the state Division of Administrative Hearings upheld that challenge in April 2022.

More: State action might be the green light for Stuart Costco, but will there be another appeal?

More: Stuart Costco project likely to move ahead now that the latest legal appeal is withdrawn

That ruling was reversed in March by the state Administration Commission, which comprises Gov. Ron DeSantis, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, Attorney General Ashley Moody and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis.

After the resident took the case to the Fourth District Court of Appeal but later withdrew that action, the way was cleared for the Costco project to move ahead.

Cosgriff said the 18-month timeline is "at the mercy of various weather factors."

The Stuart location isn't the first site eyed by Costco for a Martin County store. In 2014 the company applied to Martin County to build on Martin Highway between Florida's Turnpike and High Meadow Avenue.

But 3½ years later, and after resubmitting and revising its plans and four times failing to pass the county's review process, the company pulled the plug on the project.

Keith Burbank is TCPalm's watchdog reporter covering Martin County. He can be reached at keith.burbank@tcpalm.com and at 720-288-6882.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Developer says Costco Wholesale store tentatively set to open in 2025