{"id":446402,"date":"2026-11-03T20:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T20:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/446402\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T20:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T20:00:10","slug":"cape-coral-city-council-approves-10-million-costco-deal-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/446402\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Coral City Council approves $10 million Costco deal | Development"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"costco<\/p>\n

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A Costco Wholesale store is pictured. Cape Coral City Council voted 7-1 on Nov. 2 to approve a $10 million incentive package for the retailer to build its first location in the city. The proposed 165,000-square-foot warehouse and gas station would be built at 600 Chiquita Blvd. S., near Pine Island Road.<\/p>\n

WINK News<\/p>\n

Cape Coral has cleared the way for the city to get its own Costco, and the city manager who helped facilitate it won\u2019t be on staff to see it through.<\/p>\n

Cape Coral City Council voted 7-1 on Nov. 2 to approve a $10 million incentive agreement for Costco Wholesale Corp.<\/a> to build a 165,000-square-foot store with a gas station, just north of the Pine Island Road corridor off Chiquita Boulevard. Council member Keith Long was the lone dissenting vote. Long, who is also a liquor license attorney, declined to comment on why he voted against the incentive package.<\/p>\n

Cape Coral Mayor John Gunter, who did not get reelected and was presiding over his last meeting, made a motion at the end of the meeting to fire City Manager Michael Ilczyszyn without cause, ending his tenure after more than 20 years with the city. Ilczyszyn rose through the municipal government\u2019s ranks before becoming city manager, overseeing city operations, staff and major infrastructure initiatives.<\/p>\n

The motion did not come without controversy. It passed 4-1, with Gunter and council members Bill Steinke, Derrick Donnell and Joe Kilraine approving and Laurie Lehmann opposing. Council member Jennifer Nelson-Lastra had left the meeting earlier, reportedly for medical reasons, while council members Rachel Kaduk and Long walked out during the discussion and did not vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes it\u2019s time for good things to come to an end,\u201d Gunter said. \u201cI think the community has articulated through this election process what they\u2019re looking for. I think I\u2019d like to make a motion to terminate the city manager\u2019s contract without cause, effective 11:59 p.m. tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under his contract<\/a>, Ilczyszyn is entitled to a severance payment equal to four months\u2019 salary. Council appointed Maureen Buice, an assistant to the city manager since 2021, as interim city manager at an annual salary of $290,000.<\/p>\n

As for the proposed Costco site, neither the city nor the big-box retailer owns it. The address is 600 Chiquita Blvd. S. The parcel measures about 53 acres, including about 30 acres occupied by a water retention pond. The remaining 23 acres are shaped like a reverse letter L, with the land located south and east of the pond.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

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An aerial view shows undeveloped land near Chiquita Boulevard and Pine Island Road in Cape Coral, where Costco Wholesale Corp. plans to build a 165,000-square-foot warehouse and gas station. City Council voted 7-1 on Nov. 2 to approve a $10 million incentive package for the project, which is planned for 600 Chiquita Blvd. S.<\/p>\n

WINK News<\/p>\n

The parcel last sold for $4.75 million in March 2022, when Chiquita Land LLC purchased it from Chiquita Falls Corp.<\/p>\n

WB Construction Group, headquartered in New York City, owns Chiquita Land LLC. Robert Weinstein, who leads that company and typically develops apartment complexes, according to his website, declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Costco did not respond to messages seeking comment. Its media website states its policy is not to discuss potential future store locations.<\/p>\n

Kilraine made a motion to approve the financial incentives, calling the planned Costco store a \u201cvaluable asset.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agreement includes an $8 million Enhanced Property Value Recapture Grant used by the city to attract capital investments that expand the tax base and create jobs. It pays Costco back up to $8 million from city property taxes generated by the completed development.<\/p>\n

The incentive package gives Costco an additional $1.8 million rebate on development impact fees, with Costco paying for transportation improvements along Chiquita Boulevard, including road widening and a traffic signal. There\u2019s also a deferral of up to $200,000 in Costco\u2019s utility impact fees.<\/p>\n

The financial package has been in the works for two years. In 2024, Cape Coral\u2019s Economic and Business Development Office contacted Costco to promote the city as a potential new location, according to a staff report. Costco later asked for financial assistance to build the store and support site development costs.<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

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Cape Coral City Manager Michael Ilczyszyn\u2019s contract was updated Sept. 25 after City Council approved his request to apply a planned raise toward health insurance instead of salary.<\/p>\n

Cape Coral government<\/p>\n

Ilczyszyn helped put the package together as city manager and met with the media a week before the vote to discuss it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re super excited about it that our staff has been able to work on this deal, and the community will shortly be able to not have to travel over the bridge anymore, because we\u2019ll have a Costco right here in our backyard,\u201d Ilczyszyn said. \u201cRealistically, this has been the No. 1 request from our community for years. It\u2019s just a great time for this in Cape Coral.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ilczyszyn also said the financial incentives would pay off in the long run while adding between 150 and 175 jobs to the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt helps us not to have the administration burden of collecting administrative fees,\u201d Ilczyszyn said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great partnership for turning a site that otherwise would have been a dead site in Cape Coral and turning it productive for our citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Costco Wholesale store is pictured. Cape Coral City Council voted 7-1 on Nov. 2 to approve a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,832,3305,3692,173659],"class_list":["post-446402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-city-council","tag-city-manager","tag-costco","tag-incentive-agreement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446402","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=446402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}