The new Costco in University City has an opening date set for this fall.
The St. Louis region’s fourth Costco store will open Oct. 25, a city spokeswoman confirmed. The Issaquah, Washington-based retailer operates existing locations in south St. Louis County, Manchester and St. Peters.
The newest Costco anchors the larger $211 million Market at Olive redevelopment at Interstate 170 and Olive Boulevard that will transform the area on the north and south sides of Olive into a commercial corridor with retail, restaurants, apartments, a hotel and offices. The entire project adds nearly 50 acres of retail space, with 16 acres for Costco.
The Costco will be the first part of the new retail center to open. Construction on the second phase on the south side of Olive is underway, the city said. Over the next couple of months, the remaining buildings there will be demolished, and construction will start on four new buildings.
Two of the buildings will be built this fall, and the other two soon after. Tenants will be announced in the next few months, the city said.
Most buildings in Market at Olive are planned to be under construction by spring 2023, the city said.
Costco owns its property, but the business entity that owns the Market at Olive project, U City LLC, was acquired last year by developers Larry Chapman, CEO of Seneca Commercial Real Estate, and Bob Clark, CEO of construction firm Clayco and developer CRG. Chapman and Clark are partnering on the project with David Hutkin of real estate firm Hutkin Properties and Caroline Saunders, former general counsel of CRG who is serving as partner and counsel.
The original owner of the project, Novus Development, was approved for $70.5 million in tax-increment financing for the development in 2019 and sold the development last November for an undisclosed amount.
Rather than affixing a dollar value to the transaction, Chapman said he and Clark took over Novus President Jonathan Browne‘s interest in the project “in exchange for a bunch of agreements that we made to allow the project to go forward.”
To make way for the development, Novus acquired a mix of homes and businesses in the city’s 3rd Ward, a historically low-income neighborhood. Some of the properties were acquired through eminent domain, including seafood wholesaler and retailer Bob’s Seafood at 8660 Olive Blvd., which closed in June.
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