New Costco Locations 2026: The Complete Guide to Every Opening, Every State and What Grand Openings Are Really Like

alexsteinbergmojo
8 minutes ago
10 min read

If you have been the Costco member who drives forty-five minutes each way to the nearest warehouse, who has watched your city's population grow for a decade without the commercial infrastructure catching up, or who has been signing a community petition for a local Costco while your neighbors laugh and sign it anyway — 2026 may be the year your patience is rewarded.

Costco is investing $6.5 billion in its 2026 expansion program — one of the most ambitious single-year growth commitments in the company's history. CEO Ron Vachris made the long-range plan explicit during the Q2 2026 earnings call: 30 or more warehouses per year for the next five to ten years, with roughly half in the United States and half internationally. For fiscal year 2026, the plan was revised from an initial 35 new locations to 28 after construction delays in Spain — but 28 new warehouses is still a significant expansion of a network that serves 81 million paid member households worldwide.

This guide covers every confirmed 2026 opening, the communities that are getting their first Costco or their second, the commercial and property value impact of a new warehouse, and the specific experience of what a Costco grand opening actually looks like — because if one is coming to your area, knowing what to expect on day one makes the difference between being among the first in and being stuck in the post-opening crowd.

Why Costco Chooses Where It Builds: The Site Selection Logic

Understanding where Costco builds new locations helps members in underserved markets assess whether their community is in the pipeline — and helps members in expanding suburbs understand why new warehouses are appearing around them.

The primary factors Costco's real estate team evaluates for new location viability:

Population density and growth trajectory. Costco's institutional model requires high-volume member traffic — the warehouse typically needs to serve 60,000 to 100,000 member households within a reasonable drive time to generate the sell-through velocity that justifies the warehouse footprint and staffing. Fast-growing suburbs — particularly Sun Belt markets with inbound migration from higher-cost coastal cities — consistently top the expansion priority list because population density is building toward the threshold rather than waiting for it.

Highway access and retail corridor positioning. Every Costco warehouse is positioned for convenient access from major traffic arteries — a location that requires a difficult turn pattern or significant distance from a highway is not ideal for the high-frequency, high-volume shopping model that Costco's institutional metrics depend on.

Competitive retail gap assessment. Costco's expansion team evaluates whether a market is underserved by club store retail — whether the nearest competing warehouse club (Sam's Club, BJ's Wholesale in the Northeast) leaves a meaningful market gap that Costco can profitably capture.

Property value impact. New Costco locations consistently increase nearby property values by 5 to 8 percent within a year of opening — a figure documented in multiple independent real estate research studies. This property value impact gives municipalities strong commercial incentive to compete for Costco locations through incentive packages, infrastructure investment, and favorable zoning — as St. George, Utah demonstrated when it offered Costco a $3.18 million incentive package to secure a second warehouse location.

Job creation. Each new Costco warehouse creates 100 to 200 local jobs — positions that pay meaningfully above retail industry average, with comprehensive benefits and one of the industry's highest retention rates. For economic development offices evaluating retail attraction priorities, Costco's job quality and community investment make it one of the most desirable commercial tenants available.

States without a single Costco as of 2026: West Virginia, Wyoming, and Rhode Island remain without a warehouse location. For residents of these states, the long-range expansion roadmap CEO Vachris has outlined suggests the wait may eventually end — but no specific commitments to these markets have been publicly announced.

The Confirmed 2026 U.S. Openings: Complete Location List

Costco's company policy is to not publicly comment on new warehouse locations until they are near completion — typically two to three months in advance. As a result, the complete list of 28 planned openings for fiscal year 2026 was not fully public as of May 2026. Here are every confirmed and recently opened location through mid-year:

January 2026 — West Roseville, California

The first opening of fiscal 2026, serving the booming Sacramento metropolitan area. West Roseville is one of the fastest-growing residential communities in California's Central Valley corridor, with new housing developments that have substantially increased household density in the Roseville area over the past five years. The location features a 150,000-square-foot warehouse, full-service gas station, pharmacy, optical, hearing center, food court, and tire center — the complete Costco service package from opening day.

March 11, 2026 — Liberty Hill, Texas

Address: 595 U.S. 183. A 152,000-square-foot warehouse anchoring a retail corridor in one of the fastest-growing suburbs in the Austin metropolitan area. Liberty Hill residents previously drove nine miles to the nearest Costco. The new location serves a rapidly expanding residential community that has seen explosive population growth from Austin metro expansion. Gas station, optical department, pharmacy, hearing aid center, food court, and tire center all operational from day one.

March 11, 2026 — Forney, Texas

Address: 150 FM 460. East Texas residents east of Dallas who had been anticipating this location for over a year found that construction wrapped up early, pulling the opening forward from an initial mid-2026 target. Forney is part of the rapidly expanding Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan footprint — Costco's most aggressive domestic expansion market, where multiple new locations are being added as the DFW metro continues its extraordinary growth trajectory.

March 13, 2026 — South St. George, Utah

Address: 4700 S. Desert Color Parkway. St. George, Utah has become a two-Costco city — a distinction shared by relatively few American communities. The new location sits approximately 12 miles from the existing St. George Costco, providing significantly more convenient access for residents on the south side of the growing city.

The new warehouse features 40 fueling positions at its gas station — a notably large fuel station footprint that reflects the market's vehicle-dependent geography and the high fuel-savings motivation of the member demographic.

April 2026 — North Visalia, California

Address: Riggin Ave. and Shirk St. Serving the growing residential community of Carleton Acres, a master-planned neighborhood development north of Visalia that includes thousands of homes alongside shopping centers and schools. The Costco anchors the retail component of the development.

May 2026 — New Braunfels, Texas

Part of a master-planned community anchoring a new retail development. Construction on the warehouse began in September 2025 at a cost of $37 million for the warehouse plus the connected fuel station — communicating the capital commitment that each new Costco location represents.

June 2026 — Syracuse, Utah

Serving a growing residential area in Davis County, northwest of Salt Lake City, where population growth has significantly increased the member density justifying a new warehouse location.

June 2026 — Pensacola, Florida

Florida's Gulf Coast market receiving its first or additional Costco access — Pensacola has been among the communities most actively requesting a local warehouse location, with community social media campaigns documenting years of member demand.

June 2026 — Chandler, Arizona

Adding to Costco's existing substantial Phoenix metropolitan area presence in a community that has seen significant population growth from Phoenix suburbanization.

The International Openings: The Global Expansion Dimension

While domestic openings generate the most community-specific excitement, the international expansion program represents an equally significant dimension of the 2026 growth story.

The Spain construction delays that revised the fiscal 2026 opening count from 35 to 28 communicated Costco's aggressive European ambitions — the company wants to open in Spain faster than the real estate and permitting environment permits. The first European logistics center — in Torija, Spain — opened in 2026, providing the supply chain infrastructure to support a significantly expanded Spanish warehouse network.

Canada received its first Costco Business Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba — a specialized format distinct from the standard warehouse. The Business Centre serves commercial buyers with 70 percent unique inventory, earlier shopping hours, and commercial-scale product configurations not available in the standard warehouse format.

The Monterrey, Mexico opening — a location exceeding 200,000 square feet, designated as the largest Costco in Latin America — represents the most dramatic single international opening of the year, communicating Costco's confidence in the Mexican market's commercial potential at a scale that exceeds most U.S. warehouse locations.

Sweden received its second location in Malmö, expanding the Nordic presence beyond the Stockholm opening. The Malmö location's position near Denmark provides a geographic advantage for cross-border shoppers.

How to Find Out If a New Costco Is Coming to Your Area

Costco does not announce new locations until they are near completion — typically two to three months in advance. For members in communities that believe a Costco location may be in development, the most reliable early signals are:

Building permit applications in your local municipality. Costco's construction footprint — 150,000 to 160,000 square feet of warehouse plus a gas station, parking lot, and service facilities — requires significant municipal permitting. Local government permit databases and planning commission meeting agendas frequently show Costco development activity months before any public announcement.

Commercial real estate filings. New commercial property transactions in your area's largest retail parcels may indicate Costco acquisition activity. Local commercial real estate firms sometimes publish development pipeline reporting that identifies warehouse retail activity before public announcements.

Costco's own upcoming locations page. Costco.com maintains an Upcoming Locations section that lists confirmed new openings within two to three months of their expected opening dates.

Checking this page periodically is the most direct official channel for advance notice.

Community social media and news. Local news outlets frequently report on commercial development activity including Costco permitting and construction activity. Following your local news source's coverage of commercial development is often the first public indication that a Costco location is in development in your market.

The Grand Opening Experience: What to Expect on Day One

Costco grand openings consistently generate genuine community excitement — with lines forming hours before the doors open on the first day, local media coverage, and social media documentation from members who want to be among the first to experience the new location.

Arrive early — very early. The member who arrives at a Costco grand opening thirty minutes before the scheduled opening time is typically looking at a queue of several hundred people who arrived before them. Grand opening arrivals from one to two hours before opening are common. Members who want to be genuinely among the first inside typically arrive two or more hours before the scheduled opening.

Expect gift bags and giveaways. Most Costco grand openings include member gift bags for early arrivals — containing a combination of coupons, Shop Card credits, and product samples. The gift bags are distributed until supply is exhausted, which typically happens well before the last early-arrival member enters. The earliest arrivals capture the best grand opening gifts.

The warehouse will be at peak inventory and peak organization on day one. Grand opening day is the single day when the warehouse is most fully stocked, most carefully organized, and most thoroughly staffed. The experience of walking into a brand-new Costco on its first day — every product in place, every section fully stocked, no depleted shelves, no clearance corners yet — is a specific and genuinely enjoyable retail experience.

All services are operational from day one. The pharmacy, optical center, hearing center, tire center, and gas station are all operational from the first day at most new Costco locations — not phased in over time. This means members who need these services do not need to wait for a soft launch period.

Expect parking lot congestion for the first several weeks. The community interest that grand openings generate extends well beyond the first day — most new Costco locations experience sustained elevated traffic for four to six weeks after opening, as members from across the region visit for the first time. The parking situation at new locations typically normalizes after the initial opening period as the member community establishes its visit rhythm.

Use the Executive early hour if you have it. Executive members who want to visit a new location at its least crowded should use the 9 a.m. exclusive access window on weekday mornings rather than the grand opening weekend, when even Executive access still encounters unusually high traffic.

What a New Costco Means for Your Community

For the communities receiving new warehouse locations in 2026, the arrival of Costco is a commercial event with measurable impact that extends beyond the retail experience itself.

Property value research consistently documents a 5 to 8 percent increase in nearby residential property values within twelve months of a new Costco opening. For homeowners in the surrounding area, the new warehouse is not just a convenient shopping destination — it is a financial event that increases the value of their primary asset.

The local job creation effect — 100 to 200 jobs per warehouse, at wages meaningfully above retail industry average with full benefits — represents the kind of quality-employment creation that economic development offices specifically prioritize and that communities compete for through incentive packages.

The tax revenue contribution to local governments — through sales taxes on the $300 million to $400 million in typical annual warehouse revenue, plus property taxes on the warehouse facility itself — provides a meaningful annual contribution to municipal budgets.

And for the Costco member who has been driving forty-five minutes each way, the new location is simply the end of an inconvenience that has been a mild but persistent source of friction for years — and the beginning of a weekly routine that most members, once established, find difficult to imagine their household without.

At MOJO Sales & Branding, we track Costco's expansion program with the same commercial intensity we bring to every development that affects the member experience — because the brands we represent operate in a warehouse network that is growing, and that growth creates new opportunities on every opening day. Contact us at 732.433.7873 or Susan@MOJOSalesandBranding.com.

Confirmed New U.S. Costco Locations 2026 — Quick Reference:

Opening	Location	Key Features
January 2026	West Roseville, CA	150,000 sq ft, full services
March 11, 2026	Liberty Hill, TX	152,000 sq ft, gas station
March 11, 2026	Forney, TX (east Dallas)	Full services
March 13, 2026	South St. George, UT	40-pump gas station
April 2026	North Visalia, CA	Part of Carleton Acres development
May 2026	New Braunfels, TX	$37M construction cost
June 2026	Syracuse, UT	Davis County market
June 2026	Pensacola, FL	Gulf Coast expansion
June 2026	Chandler, AZ	Phoenix metro expansion
April 2026 (Canada)	Winnipeg, MB	First Canadian Business Centre