Costco has acquired the site of what’s expected to be its third warehouse-style store in the region, picking a high-profile property along Interstate 26 in North Charleston.
The members-only mass merchandiser bought the 29-acre tract in the mixed-use Ingleside development for about $21.7 million, according to an Oct. 21 real estate filing.
The deal closed last week.
The seller was a company affiliated with Daniel Island-based Weber USA Corp., which declined to comment.
The store had not been added to Costco’s list of future stores as of Wednesday.
“We cannot comment on locations that will be opening more than three months from today,” the retailer said on its website.
Speculation about the North Charleston store picked up a year ago after preliminary engineering documents made the rounds on social media.
In late June, the company submitted a detailed site plan with the S.C. Department of Environmental Services showing a 181,000-square-foot building and a 32-pump gas station at 9000 Blue House Road, near the new Weber Boulevard interchange.
The tract previously was to be developed into a Bass Pro Shops outlet in a deal that never materialized.
The store would be Costco’s eighth outpost in South Carolina. The retailer’s other local consumer warehouses are in West Ashley and Mount Pleasant.
Costco also is developing a $240 million distribution center along Interstate 77 near Rock Hill that will deliver imports and other goods to the new North Charleston store and about 20 others around the Carolinas and Georgia.
The Ingleside expansion would bring the Issaquah, Wash.-based chain closer to the Charleston region’s population-growth corridor, including the large-scale residential communities in the Goose Creek and Summerville areas.
The store would compete for memberships with two head-to head retail rivals: Sam’s Club at Tanger Outlets in North Charleston and BJ’s Wholesale Club in Summerville.
Weber USA’s 1,500-acre Ingleside development near I-26 and Highway 78 has been in the works since about 2008. It includes commercial space, hotels, townhomes and apartments.
