On the morning of August 6, 2026, Sanford's Planning and Zoning Commission worked through a sign program. A vote on signage is usually a five-minute formality. This one was the last procedural step before Costco could begin knocking down the former Macy's at Seminole Towne Center, and Sanford's economic development director used the moment to put a number on what comes next: a property currently valued around $50 million on the tax rolls is expected to be worth as much as $700 million within roughly four years, according to MyNews13's coverage of the approval.
That number belongs to one 76-acre site along the Rinehart Road corridor near St. Johns Parkway. It has nothing to do with the half-acre GC2 corner lot still sitting on the market a few miles south in Historic Goldsboro, marketed with the same "zoning opportunities" language it's carried for months. Both parcels sit inside Sanford city limits. Both get folded into the same citywide land averages that show up on portal search pages. A buyer working off that blended number has no way of knowing which market they're actually standing in, and that gap is the thing worth understanding before anyone writes an offer on Sanford land this fall.
The number behind the vote keeps moving
Atlanta-based The Ardent Companies closed on roughly 75 acres of the Seminole Towne Center site for about $17.5 million, according to GrowthSpotter's reporting on the city's January 2026 review. The plan replaces the long-vacant Macy's, empty since 2020, with a Costco warehouse set to be the largest in Central Florida at more than 156,000 square feet when it opens in 2027, according to WFTV. Beyond the warehouse, WFTV reports the 76-acre site is planned for a mixed-use build-out with about 300 apartments and new retail, and ClickOrlando reported the redevelopment would move north across the property once the Costco phase is underway.
What's useful for a land buyer isn't the Costco itself. It's how loosely the official valuation estimate has moved even as the underlying project stayed on the same track. In October 2025, Sanford's economic development director put the future value at up to $700 million within four years, per ClickOrlando. By January 2026, the city's own announcement cited a $500 million estimate, according to FOX 35 Orlando. A February 2026 report split the difference at $500 million to $600 million, according to Hoodline. By August 2026, the figure was back to $700 million, per MyNews13. The underlying project did not change across that window. The number attached to it moved by as much as $200 million depending on which month you asked. Sanford's economic development director summed up the scale of the ambition at the August vote:
"This will be the largest redevelopment of commercial property in Seminole County's history."
A figure that swings by up to $200 million within a single year isn't a fact you can bank on. It's a forecast that gets revised as demolition permits, tenant commitments, and construction timelines firm up. Treat any valuation you read for this corridor as a moving range tied to a real calendar, not a locked-in number. The calendar itself is the steadier data point: sign approval cleared in August 2026, demolition following immediately after, and Costco targeting a 2027 opening.
What the citywide "average" is actually blending together
Land aggregators covering Sanford report a citywide average around $166,000 per acre, with a median asking price near $350,000 for land listings overall. Numbers like that get quoted as if they describe a single market. They don't. They're an average of a 23-acre contiguous assemblage that one owner priced at $9.2 million once bank encumbrances lift, which works out to roughly $400,000 an acre, sitting in the same dataset as a 0.31-acre downtown lot zoned SC-3 and a half-acre GC2 corner in Historic Goldsboro.
They also include raw acreage east of Lake Mary Boulevard along SR 46 that's still zoned Agricultural, carrying a future land use designation of HIPAP, or High-Intensity Planned Airport. That designation signals the city's long-range intent to eventually allow airport-adjacent commercial or industrial use on that ground. It is not a rezoning. Until the underlying zoning actually changes, that land trades, taxes, and finances like agricultural property, not like commercial property, no matter how the future land use label reads on a listing sheet. A buyer who prices that parcel against the Rinehart Road corridor's momentum is pricing a promise, not a permit.
What GC2 zoning is actually building right now
Historic Goldsboro's GC2 parcels get marketed with a long list of permitted uses: retail, restaurant, daycare, medical, education, house of worship, funeral home. That range is accurate. It's also worth checking what GC2 zoning has actually produced in Sanford's recent development pipeline, which the city publishes on a quarterly map and table.
| Recent Sanford commercial site plan | Size | Zoning |
|---|---|---|
| Funtastic Learning Academy (daycare), Rinehart Road | 0.51 acres | GC-2 |
| Gyro Sanford (restaurant), South French Avenue | 3,000 sq. ft. building | GC-2 |
| Harvest Time International Hope Center | 9.55 acres | PD |
| Jesus Image Church | 8.48 acres | PD |
That data comes straight from the City of Sanford's development activity map. It shows small, owner-user projects: a daycare on half an acre, a gyro shop, a church, a hope center. That's the real reference class for a GC2 lot in this city. It is not the $700 million, institutional-scale project three miles north. If you're evaluating a Goldsboro GC2 parcel against the appreciation story happening at the mall, you're comparing two products that don't share a growth curve, even though a portal search will happily list them on the same page.
There's a second layer to this that catches buyers off guard during due diligence. Zoning and future land use are not the same thing, and they don't always agree. It's common in Historic Goldsboro for a GC2-zoned parcel to carry an underlying Neighborhood Commercial future land use designation, which caps the scale and intensity of what actually gets built, regardless of what the zoning name implies. Some assemblages even carry different zoning on each street frontage, one side commercial and the other residential. Pull both records, not just the zoning code, before assuming a GC2 label means unrestricted commercial upside.
The corridor effect is already showing up in the data
The mall redevelopment isn't sitting in a vacuum. Sanford's city manager reported an "uptick in demand for existing space adjacent to Seminole Towne Center" as word of the redevelopment spread, according to ClickOrlando's October 2025 coverage. That's the pattern to watch if you're evaluating land near Rinehart Road or St. Johns Parkway. Proximity to an active, dated redevelopment is already pulling on nearby commercial demand before a single Costco shelf goes up. It's a narrower, more localized signal than a citywide average, and it's the one that actually moves with the calendar Ardent and the city have set.
Before you make an offer
Three things worth doing before treating any Sanford land parcel as a growth play tied to the mall project. Confirm the parcel's future land use designation in addition to its zoning, since the two can cap each other. Ask where the parcel sits relative to the Costco site and the corridor's phased build-out, which is moving south to north, since even properties inside the same general area sit at different points on that timeline. And build a range around any redevelopment valuation you read rather than anchoring to a single figure, since the city's own estimate has swung by as much as $200 million within a single year.
FAQ
Does the Costco redevelopment change land values outside the mall property itself? The city has already reported increased demand for nearby existing space as the redevelopment plans firmed up. That's a corridor-level effect, distinct from any citywide average for Sanford land.
Is GC2 zoning the same everywhere in the city? No. GC2 zoning can carry different future land use caps depending on the parcel, and some assemblages carry different zoning on different frontages. Always check both records.
When does the redevelopment actually open? Costco is targeting a 2027 opening in the former Macy's space. The broader mixed-use build-out, including apartments and additional retail, is planned in phases moving north from that anchor site.
Land deals in Sanford right now reward buyers who can tell these markets apart, not buyers working off a single average. If you're evaluating a parcel in Historic Goldsboro, along the airport corridor, or anywhere near Rinehart Road, Florida One Real Estate can walk the zoning, the future land use record, and the redevelopment timeline with you before you make an offer.
