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A new Costco store near Covington — the giant retailer’s first foray into St. Tammany Parish — could open by year’s end, a parish economic development official said.
The $45.8 million store is slated for a site off Pinnacle Parkway. Construction crews were there this week and Chris Masingill, who heads St. Tammany Corporation, the parish’s economic development agency, said the latest timeline he has seen shows construction beginning in the second quarter of the year.
Costco did not respond to a request for comment, and information on the high-profile project has been sporadic since it was announced in 2022.
Masingill said that his understanding is that Costco is looking at an opening the 159,000-square-foot big box store possibly late in the third quarter.
The store will be on around 12 acres in the Nord du Lac shopping area, which fronts busy Interstate 12. At the time the project was announced, St. Tammany Corporation said the store would bring 75 full-time jobs with a nearly $60,000 annual salary, as well as another 75 part-time positions.
The store was projected to generate $60 million in new sales and property taxes over 10 years, St. Tammany Corporation said.
This will be the Fortune 500 company’s second store in the region. Costco operates a store in Mid-City in New Orleans.
The Washington-based company has more than 200,000 employees and rang up almost $238 billion in net sales for its 2023 fiscal year that ended in September.
When the northshore Costco does open it will be another crowd-drawing anchor along one of western St. Tammany’s busiest commercial corridors. The Nord du Lac shopping area includes several other stores and restaurants, including Kohl’s, Academy Sports and Outdoors and Texas Roadhouse.
Hayden Ingram, a commercial agent with Property One, which is marketing 13 acres adjacent to the Costco site, said the opening of the big retailer has prompted more interest in the area.
“Investors are excited that Costco’s going to be a neighbor,” he said.
Meanwhile, on the south side of Interstate 12 sits the River Chase retail area which includes a Sam’s Club, Belk, Target and numerous other stores.
The state is deep into a $189 million project to add additional lanes to a nine-mile stretch of I-12 between Louisiana 59 and Louisiana 1077. Much of the traffic along that stretch of roadway is shoppers heading to the Nord du Lac and River Chase retail areas.
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