The approval
In the week of September 28 through October 2, 2026, the Lawrenceville City Council voted unanimously to rezone the site for a Costco warehouse store along State Route 316, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle and the Gwinnett Daily Post. The project: a roughly 158,000-square-foot warehouse store plus a gas station on about 19.9 acres between Collins Hill Road and Buford Drive, on the parcel currently occupied by Lightnin RV Rental and Sales. The site consolidates six land parcels and sits about two miles north of Lawrenceville City Hall.
The approval clears the last hurdle for the project, which would be Costco's fourth Gwinnett County location and its first on the 316 corridor. The city also approved road upgrades for the area, including a new road and turn lanes, a point WSB-TV's coverage flagged as the traffic plan behind the vote.
Where it sits
The site is on State Route 316, the divided highway that runs northeast out of Lawrenceville toward Athens, in the same northeastern Gwinnett corner where Mulberry's city limits meet Lawrenceville's. It belongs to the Lawrenceville employment and retail base, the same map the relocation guide reads employer by employer, and it sits close enough to Mulberry to matter for the city's own shopping math.
Costco locations tend to pull retail and services around them over time, which is the pattern worth watching on the 316 corridor rather than any single store opening.
The measured read
No construction start date or job count was published in the coverage reviewed, so this is an approval note, not an opening note. Retail anchors follow rooftops and jobs, and the fact that Costco chose the 316 corridor is a signal about where both are compounding in northeastern Gwinnett.
For a buyer, the number to hold stays the same one this site has used all year: buy inside the commute ring, verify the district, and price to the comps, not the headline. A warehouse store is a convenience and a tax-base story, not a reason to overpay for an address.
Sources
As reported by the Atlanta Business Chronicle and the Gwinnett Daily Post, October 2, 2026, with the road-upgrade details as reported by WSB-TV. Square footage, acreage and location are as stated in the approval, not estimates.
Written by
Rob Dietrich
Georgia REALTOR® with eXp Realty, AI Certified Real Estate Strategist, serving Gwinnett, Hall, Barrow and Jackson counties.
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