Costco has finally locked in an opening date for its long-awaited Lee's Summit warehouse: Friday, October 2, 2026. The store near the Missouri 291-U.S. 50 interchange has been under construction for months, and shoppers eager for the new location can now mark their calendars for the fall debut.
The Kansas City Star's report confirms the warehouse had originally been expected to open sometime in August 2026 before construction timelines pushed the date back. The new store will include an optical department, pharmacy, hearing aid center, tire service center and a gas station — a full-service lineup typical of Costco's newer warehouse builds. In the meantime, Costco is running a temporary storefront at 1690 NW Chipman Road, open daily from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., according to the same report.
Costco is also actively hiring ahead of the opening, with positions posted for cashiers, meat department workers, bakery staff, pharmacy employees, gas station attendants and loss prevention roles, per the Star's reporting. That hiring push lines up with earlier projections from Ingram's Magazine, which reported the new warehouse is expected to create between 175 and 200 jobs once it opens.
A $492 Million Anchor for East Village
The Lee's Summit warehouse is more than a standalone store — it's the commercial anchor of East Village, a 130-acre, $492.7 million mixed-use development at the southeast corner of U.S. Highway 50 and S. Missouri Route 291. Ingram's reports the Lee's Summit City Council approved phase one plans in December 2025 for a 166,012-square-foot Costco situated on 23.9 acres, complete with 24 fuel pumps and 888 parking spaces. Drake Development LLC is leading the project.
To help fund the buildout, the city council approved a 23-year Tax Increment Financing plan for phase one, allowing half of the property and economic activity taxes generated on the site to reimburse eligible development costs, Ingram's reported. Phase one of East Village also spans 77 acres beyond the Costco site itself, including two apartment buildings totaling 570 units and 64,000 square feet of commercial strip and restaurant space, with full site completion targeted for 2035.
Fuel Station Permit and Highway Upgrades
On August 4, the Lee's Summit City Council held a meeting, according to the City of Lee's Summit.
The city and the Missouri Department of Transportation are partnering on a $25 million interchange improvement project at Route 291 North and U.S. Highway 50 to handle the additional commercial traffic the retail corridor is expected to draw, according to CitizenPortal, which reported that Mayor Bill Baird has touted more than $400 million in municipal infrastructure investment over the past seven years. The commercial buildout near this same interchange was also highlighted in Hoodline's recent coverage of Q39's opening in nearby Oldham Village.
Part of a Broader Metro Shift
The Lee's Summit opening lines up with a larger reshuffling of Costco's footprint across the Kansas City area. The Center for Neighborhoods - KC reported in July 2026 that Costco's Midtown Kansas City retail location on Linwood Boulevard is planned to become a Costco Business Center — a format geared toward commercial accounts rather than everyday shoppers. The planned conversion would alter the Midtown store's format, per the same report.
Once open, the Lee's Summit warehouse will become Costco's sixth location in the Kansas City metro, joining existing Costco stores in the area, according to FinanceBuzz. The expansion comes amid Lee's Summit's broader development.
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