Costco rumors are just that, for now

March 20, 2005

BOB MARTINSON/Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - Does Costco have plans to build a warehouse in the Mat-Su?

It's been the question a lot of Valley people are asking, considering the massive growth the area is going through and the influx of other box-store outlets, but for the time-being it looks as if Costco may be in a holding pattern while it looks over the Valley.

"At this time Costco has no plans to build in Alaska within the next year of 2005," a spokeswoman from Costco corporate headquarters in Issaquah, Wash., said last week.

Of course, large corporations generally try to keep their development plans under wraps, but a search of land ownership records conducted Friday by the Mat-Su Borough Assessor's Office confirmed - at least for now - that there was not any land owned by Costco Warehouses under that entity name in the Palmer Recording District.

"The city of Wasilla has not received any land-use applications from Sam's Club or Costco, and they have not yet been in contact with our public works department as far as I know, to set up any sewer and water concerns, and that is usually what comes first in the planning stage," Sandra Garley, Wasilla's city planner, said earlier this week.

Palmer Mayor John Combs said he, too, had not heard anything about Costco opening a warehouse in Mat-Su.

Wasilla has been the fastest-growing community in Alaska for about 15 years and Wasilla Mayor Dianne M. Keller sent a letter to Costco, encouraging the company to come to the Valley.

Keller wanted to point out to Costco that things are much different in Alaska than what the corporation is used to in the Lower 48.

In her letter to Costco, Keller mentioned the fact that the core-area residents alone would not sustain the store, but asked Costco officials to consider the influx of shoppers from smaller communities that wish to avoid the congestion of Anchorage.

"Besides our local population, people come up from Valdez and other outlying areas to do their shopping and sometimes want to avoid going into Anchorage," Keller said in an interview.

The idea to send her letter to Costco came about after Keller received a letter from Home Depot about how well [Home Depot's] development company was treated by the city of Wasilla and that they had a "great working relationship with their new store going in here."

Then Keller found out that the same builder, Ferguson Construction, constructs all the Costco warehouses and several other large stores.

Keller said she was proud of the letter from Home Depot and was going to forward it to Costco officials for their consideration.

Costco may not be looking at the Valley as a place to grow, just yet, apparently feeling that its two stores in Anchorage are adequate for Southcentral.

"If they were to build in Alaska, a warehouse would be more likely to go into the Fairbanks area, because with our two warehouses in Anchorage they feel that they are doing enough business that they are probably covering this (Southcentral) area quite well," said Laura Moore, a special orders manager of the Anchorage Costco location on DeBarr Road.

Contact Bob Martinson at 352-2269, or bob.martinson@frontiersman.com.