{"id":445552,"date":"2026-11-02T23:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T23:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/445552\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T23:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T23:22:08","slug":"cape-coral-city-council-approves-10-million-costco-incentive-agreement-amid-traffic-concerns-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/445552\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Coral City Council approves $10 million Costco incentive agreement amid traffic concerns | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAPE CORAL, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 A Costco in Cape Coral is one step closer to becoming a reality after City Council approved a $10 million incentive agreement Monday night, but some residents are concerned about what the development could mean for traffic.<\/p>\n

The agreement helps move forward plans for a 165,000-square-foot Costco warehouse and gas station at the intersection of Pine Island Road and Chiquita Boulevard.<\/p>\n

For many Cape Coral residents, the new location would mean no longer having to drive to Fort Myers to shop at Costco.<\/p>\n

Cape Coral resident John Benedict says that convenience is something he’s looking forward to.<\/p>\n

“I love it because I’ve always been a Costco fan in other locations, and the Costco here is about 20 miles away, so to have it two miles away is a big advantage,” Benedict said.<\/p>\n

However, Benedict is also concerned about the additional traffic the development could bring to an already busy Pine Island Road.<\/p>\n

“Well, all of Pine Island could be widened. I’m fascinated by the fact that even on weekends you can drive down Pine Island, and find a lot of traffic,” Benedict said.<\/p>\n

RELATED:\u00a0Cape Coral to vote on Costco deal with Chiquita Blvd upgrades<\/a><\/p>\n

Other residents also anticipate an increase in traffic if the Costco is built.<\/p>\n

But not everyone is worried about more cars on the road.<\/p>\n

St. James City resident Ann Frakes says she’s willing to deal with additional congestion in exchange for a shorter drive.<\/p>\n

“I’m not too concerned about it. It gets busy when the snowbirds come down, anyway, so just got to go with the flow, I guess,” Frakes said.<\/p>\n

“I’d rather get in a little traffic around here than go all the way over to Fort Myers because that’s plenty of traffic there,” she added.<\/p>\n

The approved incentive agreement includes improvements to Chiquita Boulevard, including additional turn lanes and a traffic signal.<\/p>\n

But questions remain about whether Pine Island Road will need to be widened or additional traffic signals installed to accommodate more vehicles.<\/p>\n

WINK News reached out to the City of Cape Coral about those concerns.<\/p>\n

The city says traffic impacts will be evaluated before construction begins, and improvements such as additional turn lanes or traffic signals along Pine Island Road could be added if needed.<\/p>\n

\"Cape<\/p>\n

However, there is no confirmation yet on whether Pine Island Road will be widened.<\/p>\n

Monday night’s approval marks another step toward bringing Costco to Cape Coral, although construction and an opening date have not yet been announced.<\/p>\n

WINK News will continue following the development and its potential impact on traffic in the area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CORAL, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 A Costco in Cape Coral is one step closer to becoming a reality…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,5219,211,210,832,3692,173422,172177,28,113823,173421],"class_list":["post-445552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-city-council","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-city-council","tag-costco","tag-costco-warehouse","tag-council-vote","tag-florida","tag-retailers","tag-supermarkets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}