The city of Asheville is back in talks with Costco regarding the opening of a store in the city, Mayor Esther Manheimer told the Asheville Citizen Times June 17.
“They pulled out of the deal completely last time, so they had been under contract to purchase the property, they had submitted their application. They need to put the property back under contract and resubmit their application,” Manheimer said.
Costco pulled from the deal in February, withdrawing its application to develop at Enka Commerce Park after multiple delays before the city of Asheville Planning and Zoning Commission, the Citizen Times previously reported.
“Folks have expressed to me that having Costco in Asheville will make their grocery bill affordable. I’ve had people express to me that it will be life changing for them.”
The company had proposed building a 160,000-square-foot Costco at 264 Enka Heritage Parkway last September. The proposal included a 32-pump fueling station and a tire center, and the facility would have been Western North Carolina’s first Costco.
New Costco in Asheville could be ‘life-changing’
Manheimer said that people in Asheville have been constantly asking her about Costco, and some have told her they drive to Greenville, SC, to get groceries from the Costco there.
“It’s very exciting. I hear so much from folks in Asheville that affordability is their number one issue, and specifically around housing, groceries, gas, basic needs of any household,” Manheimer told the Citizen Times.
“And folks have expressed to me that having Costco in Asheville will make their grocery bill affordable. I’ve had people express to me that it will be life changing for them.”
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.”
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Manheimer said that the site would be developed as a brownfield site, meaning that it is an abandoned, formerly industrial site that could potentially need to be cleaned up. That brings additional costs to the project, Manheimer said.
Another hurdle is the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s requirements for right-of-way improvements that would help manage the additional traffic a Costco would bring, Manheimer said.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation released a traffic study in late 2025 indicating nearly 16,000 additional motorists would be added to Interstate 40 Exit 44 every day with the addition of Costco. Manheimer said that the intersection is under construction now, and additional improvements are planned but haven’t been funded.
“Trying to help get that next step engineered and funded is something that i’m working on,” she said.
The third hurdle is the city’s own requirements for the site, Manheimer said.
“That would be up to council what requirements they’re flexible on and what ones they’re not,” she said.
Manheimer said that typically large projects trigger the state’s economic development incentive program, and when that happens, the state, city and county work together to recruit and place the employer.
“(Costco representatives) have expressed to me that they’d like to get moving, assuming they can iron out any remaining hurdles, and then have an accelerated process. Because they have already been through the technical review process, that part of it will probably be faster than if we’re just starting from scratch,” Manheimer said.
Reporting by Kara Fohner, Asheville Citizen Times / Asheville Citizen Times
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