Image | Courtesy of Google Maps
Costco is considering a location at the Mall at Whitney Field
5 hours ago
Costco considering opening a Central Mass. location
Image | Courtesy of Google Maps
A Costco location in Dedham
Costco Wholesale is considering plans to open what would be its only Central Massachusetts location as part of what would be a wider revamping of The Mall at Whitney Field property in Leominster.
Leominster Mayor Dean Mazzarella said discussions between Costco and the property’s owner, Hull Property Group in Atlanta, are ongoing for a project which would see the warehouse club retailer construct a location at the site of the mall first built in 1967.
“I don’t think you can find a better location in Worcester County,” Mazzarella said of the proposal. “I’m confident the project will happen.”
News of the potential location first became public in May, when business blog The Connecticut Scoop published renderings and plans related to the proposal.
Those same documents were shared to Reddit and Facebook, with a Reddit post saying the documents were noticed by a contractor who discovered the plans as part of a bid posted on PlanHub, a construction-focused website which allows general contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers to connect.
Those documents reveal a plan which would see a sizable portion of the northern section of the mall demolished to make room for the Costco and a proposed gas station to be operated by the company. The current location of a JCPenneys at the mall would remain, but the documents show a plan which would lead to the demolition of space formerly occupied by Sears and Filene’s.
The plans call for the Costco to be a standalone 152,000-square-foot building not attached to the existing mall building.
Costco has a policy of not offering comment on new locations until three months before they open, according to its website. The Seattle-based big box warehouse retailer operates more than 600 locations, including Massachusetts stores in Avon, Danvers, Dedham, Everett, Sharon, Waltham, and West Springfield.
Hull Property Group did not respond to requests for comments on the plan. The firm, which specializes in redeveloping shopping malls, purchased the Leominster property for $16 million on Christmas Eve in 2019. The seller, an entity of Colony Capital in Los Angeles, had paid $36 million for the property in 2013.
Mazzarella noted the plans are still in the discussion stages and couldn’t offer a definitive timeline on when the proposed store would open if Costco continues to pursue the location, but said the City of Leominster has been supportive of the proposal.
He said the site used to accommodate large crowds of shoppers, which have been rarely seen in more recent years, meaning current transportation infrastructure should be able to support the additional traffic a Costco would likely bring.
Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the manufacturing and real estate industries.
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