COSTCO Business Center Metro Vancouver
 

Great article from Retail insider here >> https://www.retail-insider.com/retail-in...re-storefront-with-several-more-planned/

Where do you expect a Vancouver Business Center to open?

I figured I would start a thread on this. Its interesting to me as I have always found Costco to have a lack of stores in Metro Vancouver when compared to Edmonton or Calgary or even say Ottawa.

And now Edmonton is getting a Business Center next month.


here are the Costco store totals by my count:

-Calgary has 7 (including Ottoks) at 1.55 million people metro

-Edmonton has 7 (soon to be 8 with the Business Center) at 1.45 million people metro

-Ottawa has 6 (including a new Business Center) at 1.45 million people metro

-Metro Vancouver has .... 9 .... at 3 million+ people if you include Abbotsford\Mission\Chilliwack.
... NINE ........ we are massively under served.


but looking at it in detail I only really see this playing out.

- Chilliwack getting a store.
- South Surrey getting a store.
- Mission and/or Maple Ridge getting a store.
- North Vancouver? (there was plans for one 10 years ago on the site that is now the U/C sewage plant. The only sizable sites I could see would be a) on the Native land where the current Superstore is on Mt Seymour. I could see a new build there with a parkade and a store on top. even allowing for the Superstore to stay in the new build in addition to the Costco. b) at Capilano Mall. on the SW Corner surface area parking lots. same idea store over parkade.
-South Delta? I was surprised Costco did not move into the Tsawwassen Commons project when it opened....and from what I understand the Walmart there is never busy ... so maybe it was the right move. but I would have expected ferry bound traffic to stop at a Costco there as well even if they were headed to a Gulf Island or to Victoria that only has 1 poorly located store.

even with the above 3 or 4 stores plus a Business center we will still be below the per capita store count of Edmonton and Calgary.



and then when I think in terms of the Metro Vancouver business center location we would be looking at I think these options in terms of best case scenario.

1- a new build regular costco store in east burnaby/coquitlam/new west area in maybe the United Blvd area/Lougheed mall redevelopment and then the current East Burnaby Store renovated to be a business center.
2 - a new build store in North Surrey (Near Scott Road Station) or Central Langley
3 - a new build store in East Richmond or maybe Bridgeport area (Think close to the Ikea).

no matter what it is ... or other places than I mentioned it will be a couple years till we see a Business center out here at the very least sadly ..... that sucks.

would be interested to see what everyone else thinks!
:cheers:

Augh, you got me all excited thinking that they were opening one here.

I think Richmond is most likely, given how busy that warehouse is. Burnaby has a few warehouses (though one of them is kind of due for replacement, despite upgrades and expansions over the years), New West city council I don't really see being friendly to Costco's big box model, and the Coquitlam/Maple Ridge area is pretty well served by the one in Port Coquitlam.

By sheer population, yes, we have fewer Costco warehouses than elsewhere in Canada, but we also have quite a few RCSS stores. Different markets, but they're both somewhat similar in being large format grocery stores.

I could see the downtown location being converted to a business centre, and opening a new warehouse in south vancouver/along marine drive. Or maybe the other way around.

Years ago, Costco would open earlier for people with business accounts, and then opened to the general public after that. That seems simpler than separate operations?

The Business Centre locations stock many items that aren't available in the regular warehouses (there's no room for them).

Ron.

Marine Drive would be a good place for one. Maybe closer to the River District area.

There are lots of sizeable sites on the north shore. How big do you think it needs to be? It doesn’t have to have sprawling surface parking lots

I could see Costco opening new locations in the following metros:

- South Surrey
- West Van/North Van (ideally, around Park Royal if possible)
- Maple Ridge
- Possibly Guildford or Fleetwood

The Costco on KGB kind of throws things off a little bit because right now it services all of Surrey whereas I think that Surrey could possibly have the population to support 3 Costcos that are strategically located.

- A Costco around Guildford would service North Surrey including Surrey Central.

- The KGB Costco would service Newton and parts of North Delta.

- A South Surrey Costco would then service South Surrey and White Rock.

But this is all just pure speculation :P . I have no clue on what the logistics would be but I was pretty much going off of distance and potential catchment areas. Again I have no clue how much traffic a standard Costco location would need to attract in order to be profitable.

I think the downtown Vancouver store is a good size indicator. 2 levels of parking under a store. (obviously without a Spectrum sized Condo above)

could be built so its engineered to add residential or office above down the line.

I think Cap Mall would be ideal the more I think of it.

what sites could you see working other than the two I mentioned?

Park and Tillford redevelopment maybe?

I heard a rumour that a Costco was going in at the SW corner of 168 St and Hwy 10 in Surrey.

Metro Edmonton is more like 1.32 million. Costco tends to thrive in suburban locations. They build based on membership numbers.

I know it's not a popular opinion but a Costco in a lower level of for example the new Oakridge mall would be awesome with its central location in Vancouver. A Costco Business Centre would probably be best in say, Burnaby or Surrey. If we are looking for a place in Vancouver proper for the Costco Business I would pick in the area of example Rupert Skytrain station may be on the site of the old BCLDB HQ but with offices and other uses built on top of it as well.

WOW ... juicy rumor for sure. ya I could see that for sure.

as for population I just used the 2020 data from >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_census_metropolitan_areas_and_agglomerations_in_Canada

Suggestions that this might go on the north shore might be overly optimistic, given how expensive commercial land is there.

As for a Business Centre location in the Lower Mainland, Tsawassen would be ideal. Very accessible from almost everywhere.. great access for customers from the island.. lots of available land.

This would be a great location for a regular Costco as well.

Build it and they will come. :)

Ron.

You guys have some funny ideas. North Shore?! Tsawwassen?! Please open up a map.

Costco knows exactly where their customers are thanks to their membership, and who is going where to shop at what stores. I expect anything like this to be very centrally located. Richmond might be an option.

Have a look at where they're building the Business Centre in Edmonton...
https://www.google.com/maps/place/186+St...49bbfa21!8m2!3d53.5410326!4d-113.6466216

How about Ottawa...
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Costco...8b69cd174!8m2!3d45.4150466!4d-75.6033898


Richmond is not centrally located for Surrey, New West, Victoria, Nanaimo, etc. Tsawassen would be ideal.

Ron.

Ah, I was looking at 2016 numbers. I thought Edmonton had 300,000 less people than Calgary.

Riverport Area in Richmond, centrally located near a major transportation corridor. Will become more accessible with new Massey crossing replacement. Some appropriately designated and under-used lands. Fills the gap nicely between Richmond and Surrey Costco locations.

I'd be really surprised if anything of this type was put in Richmond. At least unless the Tunnel is being replaced which seems like we'll be waiting another 100 years at current rates. It's crazy to think we'd have a bridge complete in just a few years if the NDP didn't chicken out.

Other thing they would need to consider is space. If they are truly focused on businesses then you're talking trucks, vans, pickups, trailers, etc. So they need space and good road infrastructure around. So maybe South Richmond at best if on that side of the river, but you're likely not going to see one anywhere near the North Shore or Downtown Vancouver.

Unfortunately Costco doesn't present Revenue by Store but I'd say pretty much every location is ridiculously busy. They had to build extra parking lots for the Surrey location in Newton and even then people park up and down the surrounding streets nearly every day 7 days a week. Langley is ridiculously busy too and you can't move around the location in Richmond often.

The issue with Richmond is you have to cross a bridge if you have a store anywhere except Richmond. I'd honestly vote for Fraser Mills area of Coquitlam around where the other big box locations are. Relatively easy access to everyone North of Fraser, and right along HW1 near Port Mann giving easy access to Surrey, Delta, and Langley especially when new Patullo Bridge is complete.

Seems to me like the most reasonable location if they were to build one. I live in Surrey Central and can get to the Ikea in that area of Coquitlam quicker than I can get to South Surrey or even Tsawwassen.

North Shore should get a Costco of some sort, but just a standard retail focused one.

For those of you who have no idea what a Costco Business Centre store is.. have a look at their web page.. it will give you an idea what they carry.

https://www.costcobusinesscentre.ca/

Ron.

here is some more >>

https://www.narcity.com/en-ca/things-to-...ess-centre-in-ottawa-has-2k-unique-items

https://www.mtlblog.com/en-ca/news/montr...ve-items-you-cant-find-at-regular-costco

https://globalnews.ca/news/7694865/costco-edmonton-business-centre-opening/

https://www.narcity.com/en-ca/news/edmon...ess-centre-is-finally-opening-this-month