Costco buys Sarasota Square property for $10.5 million

By Elizabeth King
| 11:49 a.m. June 19, 2025
| 2 Free Articles Remaining!

Costco is located at 8201 S. Tamiami Trail, Suite 501, Sarasota.

Manatee-Sarasota

A retail giant recently purchased the property where its store in Sarasota County is located. Costco Wholesale Corp. bought 8201 S. Tamiami Trail, Suite 501, for $10.5 million, according to Sarasota County property records.

The seller is 8201 Sarasota Mall East LLC, an LLC that corresponds to Torburn Partners, the Illinois company that owns and is redeveloping the former Sarasota Square Mall.

Demolition of the mall began this winter. The entire building is set to be demolished, except for JCPenney, which will stay open, and the nearby Costco. AMC Theater, which closed last Halloween, will remain vacant, according to county records.

Torburn Partners plans to create a mixed-use project on the more than 93-acre property that will include up to 1,200 apartments; more than 690,000 square feet of commercial/office space; and a central area for events.

In the past several years, the developer has spent tens of millions of dollars buying up Sarasota Square properties, including the mall structure itself for $19 million in 2021. More recently, county records show, Torburn Partners purchased the JCPenney property for $18 million in August 2024.

Costco opened its Sarasota Square store in 2012.

Costco-owned buildings in region

Costco owns most of the buildings in the region where it operates stores, according to a review of property records along the Gulf Coast. It leases space at 805 Lighthouse Drive in Bradenton and 8712 W. Linebaugh Ave. in Tampa.

The following are Costco-owned stores:

11700 Mezzo Drive in North Port; Costco bought it in 2023 for $5.94 million.
10921 Causeway Blvd. in Brandon; Costco purchased it in 2000 for $5.95 million.
2655 Gulf to Bay Blvd. in Clearwater; Costco bought it in 2002 for $7.58 million.
10088 Gulf Center Drive in Estero; bought it in 2006 for $8.5 million.
7171 Cypress Lake Drive in Fort Myers; Costco bought it in 2000 for $10.1 million.
2225 Grand Cypress Drive in Lutz; Costco purchased it in 2016 for $6.4 million.
6275 Naples Blvd. in Naples; Costco bought it in 1999 for $5.5 million.

Costco, which has 34 stores in Florida, operates 624 warehouses in the United States and Puerto Rico. The company posted $20.97 billion in net sales in May, a 6.8% increase from May 2024.

author

Elizabeth King

Elizabeth is a business news reporter with the Business Observer, covering primarily Sarasota-Bradenton, in addition to other parts of the region. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, she previously covered hyperlocal news in Maryland for Patch for 12 years. Now she lives in Sarasota County.