Asheville won’t be getting a CostCo after all—at least for now

Asheville residents have been eagerly awaiting a CostCo, but a proposed plan to build one in the western NC city has been withdrawn.

After multiple delays before the city of Asheville Planning and Zoning Commission, Costco has withdrawn its application to develop at Enka Commerce Park. The company said development on the site proved more costly than anticipated.

In a Feb. 17 letter to city development staff, Costco’s development project manager Nettie Boyle wrote that “since submitting the application, additional requirements from reviewing agencies related to both on-site and off-site improvements have increased the project’s overall scope, timeline, and anticipated costs. As a result, the applicant has elected to withdraw the current submittal from the review process at this time.”

During City Council’s Feb. 19 agenda briefing, Mayor Esther Manheimer said she spoke with Costco’s representative who “wanted to applaud the city and the planning department, specifically,” but that the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s requirements imposed on the company to improve Smokey Park Highway are “fairly significant.”

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Manheimer called the decision for Costco to withdraw from the application process “disappointing news for our city.” The morning of Feb. 19, Manheimer called the chair of the NCDOT board to “try and find some creative solutions” for the company, she said.

The Citizen Times has reached out to the NCDOT for comment.

Already, transit had become an a topic of concern for the complex Costco plan.

During a Feb. 5 meeting between Costco’s development team and city of Asheville staff, a private road in the proposal — Jacob Holm Way — was highlighted as “substandard,” including a undersized culvert and potentially becoming a liability for the city if the road was annexed into by Asheville, according to a recording of that meeting. Both the city and NCDOT don’t want to own the road, Boyle said during the meeting. Costco, also, does not want to upgrade the road, representatives said during the meeting.

A Jan. 7 staff report described the “small stub” private road as “a portion that connects the proposed roadway to the state-owned portion of Enka Heritage Parkway” that is within Buncombe County. The report suggested staff work look at options for “creating consistency for the roadway in terms of ownership, construction and maintenance.” If inherited by the city, the road would have to be upgraded.

“Regardless, the acceptance of the roadway will have budgetary impacts that will need to be reflected in annual budget considerations,” the report said.

Costco currently operates over 900 warehouses worldwide — over 600 of which are in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The company is well known for its offerings of bulk products, similar to Sam’s Club. The company is membership-based, meaning consumers must purchase a membership card to enter. A basic membership costs $65 a year and an executive membership costs $130 a year.

Long awaited by residents of Asheville, the wholesale company officially proposed building a 160,000 square-foot Costco at 264 Enka Heritage Parkway in September, in what would be Western North Carolina‘s first Costco. The proposal included a 32-pump fueling station and a tire center.

In November, city staff presented the proposal to the Technical Review Committee as more planning documents were released by the company. A 1,365-page traffic study indicated a two-phase plan for building the location. Phase one would include building-out the Costco in 2026, and a second phase would include building a 60,000 square foot medical office building and a 7,900 square-foot “high-turnover sit-down restaurant” in 2028, according to the Traffic Impact Analysis dated September 2025.

But the project’s hearing before the Planning and Zoning Commission was delayed twice as city staff met with the project managers to finalize details. On Feb. 17, the application was officially withdrawn.

Other members of City Council have expressed their frustration with the decision.

City Council member Bo Hess called the decision “devastating” and described the decision as “a combination of external factors from the NCDOT” with internal requests such as additional sidewalks, solar panels and other design elements.

“I’m sad. I feel a little dejected today,” Hess told the Citizen Times.

In a Facebook post the morning of Feb. 19, City Council member Sage Turner gave the public an update on the hotly anticipated Costco application, adding “Ugh!”

“Costco withdrew their application. The Enka site will not move forward. I’ll be doing what I can to learn more,” Turner said in the post.

This story will be updated.

Reporting by Will Hofmann, Asheville Citizen Times / Asheville Citizen Times

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