'Chain gang' helps rejuvenate a region

The chain-based retail sector in mid-Sarasota County, left for dead in the recession, is showing some life.

The latest jolt: Costco, the membership warehouse that sells everything from tires to tomatoes, started construction on a store at the Westfield Sarasota Square Mall on U.S. 41. Costco is the latest addition in a multiyear, $50 million revitalization effort at the mall that includes a new 12-screen AMC Theatre and 25,000 square feet of additional retail space.

Costco is expected to open next summer, in space formerly occupied by Dillard's, a department store that was a mall anchor before it closed. Other chains that have announced or already opened stores in the area, about halfway between downtown Sarasota and Venice, include Home Depot, Lowe's and Kohl's.