Costco Wholesale Corp. has confirmed plans to have a store anchor the renovated Niagara Square shopping center in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Construction will start on the 150,000 square foot store in the next few weeks and should be completed by the fall of 2020. It will be located just off the Montrose Road exit on the QEW according to Biz Journals.
The Niagara Falls store will be its second in the nearby Niagara Region of Southern Ontario. There is also a Costco in St. Catherines, one of the 94 it operates in Canada. Costco used to be called the Price Club but changed its corporate name in 1997.
Per The Hamilton Spectator, Steve Campbell, vice president of asset management for mall owner Bayfield Realty Advisors, stated the crews will move in soon to demolish the indoor shopping mall, most of which will be used for Costco parking space. The actual store will be set back at the rear of the Montrose Road property.
Stand-alone businesses already at the mall, such as World Gym, Jysk, Michael's and the Mandarin restaurant will remain open.
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When the Costco in Stoney Creek opened, it created about 200 jobs, roughly half of those full time. The average full-time Costco wage is about $24 per hour. Even though several stand-alone businesses have moved in at Niagara Square in the past few years (most recently Choon, which is the cannabis store that opened last weekend), the interior part of Niagara Square has been vacant since 2017.
A few years ago, the city started looking for major retailers and had set up a meeting with Costco. They brought in their full team for the meeting. The city presented a business plan including information on population, the local economy and projected growth in south Niagara Falls and Costco was very impressed.
The Costco opening won't be the only large scale retail development for Niagara Falls next year. Canadian Tire plans to open a new store at the old Target site on Morrison Street and will consolidate the city's two existing stores there.
Niagara Falls and Costco do have a history together. In the early 1990's, when Costco was known as price Club, it wanted to open a big-box store on Mountain Road in Niagara Falls. Many smaller retailers were opposed and the issue gripped city council for several months before it's application was rejected.
Price Club opened on North Service Road in St. Catherines instead and for more than 20 years has been a major retailer in the city.
Costco memberships start at $60 and each of the 94 locations across Canada has an average of about 60,000 memberships.
According to The Standard, it is hoped that the new store will be a catalyst for more growth in the city's south end which has already seen the opening of a large subdivision in recent years and where a new hospital is expected to be built within the next 10 years.
