Costco Was the Big One. Here's What's Moving In Behind It on Nine Mile Road.

Four new businesses are opening along Nine Mile Road between now and early November, and none of them is a national anchor. That’s the point. When the small operators start signing leases on the same road the big box just landed on, the road has changed.

What’s coming, and when

Parlor Doughnuts is putting its second Pensacola shop at 500 E. Nine Mile Road, in a former car wash near Lost Pizza and Costco. It gets a drive-thru and a lot more seating than the Palafox Place store. The build-out is under construction, and no opening date has been announced.

Pelican Bar and Grill is a bar, sit-down restaurant and arcade in one building at 1420 W. Nine Mile Road, 120 to 150 seats, steaks and grouper on one side and wings and pizza on the bar side. Co-owner Reddy Kandala is aiming for the first week of October.

Emerald Fortress, a veteran-owned card and hobby store, opens at 319 E. Nine Mile Road. It has a card show on the books for Saturday, October 10 and a Chamber ribbon cutting on November 4.

And 7 Brew cut the ribbon on its Nine Mile and Chemstrand stand in February. Two more are proposed for the same road, one at Pine Forest and one near Target at University Parkway. Three drive-thru coffee stands on one stretch is a company betting on commuter volume.

Why this is the more interesting story

Costco opening in June was the headline. I wrote about it then, and the argument was simple: a company like that doesn’t guess. A warehouse going in means they concluded the growth had already happened.

This is the next step in that pattern, and it’s the one worth watching if you’re looking at houses out that way. A doughnut franchisee converting a car wash is not running a national site-selection model. He’s looking at the Costco parking lot and the cars on the road and deciding the traffic is real. Same with an arcade bar. Same with a hobby store that needs foot traffic on a Saturday.

The anchor proves the demand. The small operators prove people believe it. That second group is spending their own money, and they tend to be right about their own neighborhoods.

What it means if you’re buying near there

The errands are getting shorter. For years the trade in Beulah and Cantonment was more house for the money and a longer drive for everything else. Coffee, doughnuts, a night out with the kids and a warehouse run are now on the same road. That gap keeps closing.

Watch what kind of business is filling in. These are all convenience and family spots. That tells you who the road is being built for, and it’s the same crowd buying the new construction north of it.

And the traffic is real. Three drive-thrus and a Costco gas station put a lot of cars on a road that was already busy. If you’re looking at a house that backs up to Nine Mile or feeds onto it, drive it at 5:30 on a weekday. Not on a Sunday morning.

The honest caveat

Retail filling in doesn’t raise the value of any one house. It changes what living there feels like. If you moved out that way for quiet, more drive-thrus is not obviously a win. If you moved out there for value and were tired of driving twenty minutes for a cup of coffee, that trade just got better.

Know which one you are before you buy on that side of town.

Sources: Pensacola News Journal (July 9, 2026, Parlor Doughnuts) · Business Debut (Aug. 31, 2026, Pelican Bar and Grill) · Pensacola Chamber of Commerce and TCDb (Emerald Fortress) · NorthEscambia.com (Feb. 25, 2026 and Jan. 4, 2026, 7 Brew).

Photo: Costco, file photo.