Sam’s Club now has its building permit in hand for a new 168,500sf club warehouse / grocery store on South Mooney Blvd. The project construction cost is about $33 million including the warehouse and a 8.6 foot tall wall on the perimeter of the property to reduce noise for neighbors.
Now comes the race between Sam’s Club and rival Costco to see who is first to open their new warehouses likely by mid 2026 on opposite bookends of the community. Both projects have major gasoline fueling stations attached to their properties and will draw other retailers nearby given their retail popularity.
Costco has told the city they hope to open their 32-pump gas station by spring, sooner than the warehouse. That’s as big as they come currently although a 48-pump Costco station is in the works in Surprise Arizona.
Also part of the project at the new Visalia Sam’s Club is a $1 million installation of four solar carpark canopies covering the parking lot next to the store as well as an energy storage system.
Running in tandem to the Sam’s Club project is next-door fast food giant Chick-fil-A who now has filed for their building permit for a new 5000 square-foot double drive-through on the southwest corner of Mooney and Visalia Parkway in the same center. The company is proposing to spend $1.9 million to build the popular eatery. The restaurant is expected to open at 5:30 in the morning six days a week. Famously, the privately-held restaurant will be closed on Sunday. This project involves a site plan review by city staff just this week- November 5 to go over the project.
Visalia could see a new 18,000sf pistachio warehouse with processing equipment going in being heard at the November 5 site plan review project with the city. It would be the first nut processing plant in town and is being proposed by Rosa Moreno and the company Murullo,LLC.The proposal warehouse would be located in the industrial park at 7427 S. Sunnyside.