PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — A new Costco distribution center will soon be constructed in Port St. Lucie, creating hundreds of jobs for the Treasure Coast.
The Economic Development Council (EDC) of St. Lucie County said the facility will be a cold and dry storage depot located at the Legacy Park at Tradition off Interstate 95 and Southwest Becker Road.
The site will eventually include two facilities totaling 1.87 million square feet and employ more than 500.
The site plan for the project was approved by the Port St. Lucie City Council on Dec. 4. The first phase consists of a 595,000-square-foot cold and dry storage facility, which the EDC said will employ 265 people at an average wage of $55,350 plus benefits.
Officials said construction of the facility's first phase will employ 549 people.
A 1.06-milllion-square-foot dry goods distribution center will be built in the second phase, according to the council. Two future expansion areas of 60,000 square feet for cold storage and 147,500 square feet for dry storage are included in the plan, according to an EDC news release.
"This is another great economic development project in the works," Port St. Lucie Mayor Shannon Martin said in a statement. "While this is a somewhat different Costco project than our city had worked toward in the past, the reality is that the jobs this Costco depot will bring us, at well above our county's average wage, will make a huge, positive difference in the lives of 265 local families and the lives of the many others these families touch — and that's for the first phase alone."
The Port St. Lucie City Council approved an incentive package for Costco on Monday. The package includes ad valorem tax exemptions for real and tangible personal property at 100% for the first five years, then at 90%, 80%, 60%, 40% and 20% for the next five years; mobility and impact fee mitigation and an opportunity for a Job Growth Investment Grant.
The new facility in St. Lucie County will replace a current Costco depot facility in West Palm Beach. The director of real estate for Costco Wholesale said at Monday's Port St. Lucie Council meeting that their West Palm Beach site, located near 45th Street and Florida's Turnpike, will be relocated since they had "maxed out their growth."
The first phase of the project is expected to take about a year and a half to complete.
Other facilities that exist at Legacy Park at Tradition include FedEx, Amazon and Cheney Brothers.
Despite discussion about a future Costco store eventually being built in Port St. Lucie, the only Costco approved to be constructed on the Treasure Coast is in Stuart. That store is tentatively slated to open in the summer of 2025.
"Bringing in ... a company like Costco into Port St. Lucie is really amazing," Jennifer Davis, the director of the Port St. Lucie Community Redevelopment Agency. "We hope that ... at some point in the future Costco will look at this site and see the benefit of not only having the distribution jobs here but also having the retail establishment here too."