Costco Wholesale Corp. is thinking big in California.
The membership warehouse club retailer is proposing to build a location in Fresno, Calif., that would include a main building of more than 241,000 sq.ft., with 47,000 sq. ft. dedicated to a market delivery operation of large and bulky items, reported gvwire.com. If approved and built, it would the largest Costco to date. (A 235,000 sq. ft. Costco in Salt Lake City currently holds the title.)
The 22.4-acre site in Fresno would also include a Costco gas station with 32 fuel pumps and an automated car wash. A total of 889 parking stalls are planned, the report said. The store would replace a smaller Costco in Fresno that is located less than three miles away.
A draft environmental impact report for the project was recently approved by the city of Fresno’s Planning & Development Department for a 45-day public comment period through August 25.
Costco operates 855 warehouses, including 587 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 107 in Canada, 40 in Mexico, 32 in Japan, 29 in the United Kingdom, 18 in Korea, 15 in Australia, 14 in Taiwan, four each in China and Spain, two in France, and one each in Iceland, New Zealand and Sweden. Costco also operates e-commerce sites in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Australia.