WESLEY CHAPEL — Costco Wholesale plans to join the membership warehouse market in the New Tampa/Wesley Chapel area with a 153,000-square-foot store at the Cypress Creek Town Center.

It becomes the latest retailer confirmed for the 540-acre town center, adjacent to the Interstate 75 and State Road 56 interchange, which includes the 1.1 million-squre-foot Tampa Premium Outlets mall as its centerpiece. When completed, the project is scheduled to contain 2 million square feet of retail space, restaurants, offices, hotels and a residential community.

Previously, fast-food restaurant Chick-fil-A filed plans with Pasco County to operate at the mall entrance, and outlet mall developer Simon Property Group identified Saks OFF 5th as one of its anchors in 2012.

The Costco Wholesale store is planned on an 18-acre parcel south of SR 56 and west of the interstate. It will be just down the street from a Sam's Club at the front of the Seven Oaks development and one I-75 exit north of the B.J.'s Wholesale Club on Commerce Palms Drive east of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard in New Tampa. Costco Wholesale already operates stores in Brandon and Clearwater.

Costco's director of real estate development, a pair of engineers and a representative from the Richard E. Jacobs Group are scheduled to huddle with Pasco County planners this month in what is known as a "development permit pre-submittal'' meeting.

The Cleveland-based Jacobs Group is one of three entities developing the town center project. Simon is building the outlet mall scheduled to open in October 2015, and Sierra Properties of Tampa, the original developer, owns the remaining 240 acres traversed by SR 56.

Simon's marketing effort points out the location near the highway interchange puts the project within a 30-mile drive of nearly 2.7 million people with an average household income of $64,000.