Costco Queensland: New Ipswich store to open at Citiswich site in 2018

COSTCO will commence site preparation works immediately on its latest southeast Queensland mega store, and customers have been given a steer on when they can expect to step inside.

US retail giant Costco has lodged development applications for its second Queensland warehouse at Walker Corporation’s Citiswich Business Park in Ipswich.

Costco has confirmed that the applications have been lodged with Ipswich City Council for the warehouse a 6.5ha Ashburn Rd site, opposite the Puma Travel Centre at Bundamba.

The signing of Costco is a major coup for Walker Corporation as the US giant was looking at a range of sites around Brisbane, where it already has a North Lakes outlet in operation.

Site preparation works will commence immediately, with Costco’s construction program scheduled for an opening of this second Costco store in Queensland aimed for 2018.

The warehouse will be the equivalent in size to two football fields and create up to 280 new jobs.

An aerial of the Citiswich Business Park, which will be the home of the new Costco.

Costco managing director Patrick Noone, said the company was “thrilled” to be continuing its investment in southeast Queensland.

“We have been trading in North Lakes since 2014 with great success and are excited to be bringing Costco to a dynamic, ever growing region,” he said.

A planning application was lodged with Council last month (August) to develop the site at within stage 1 of the Citiswich Industrial Estate.

The proposal involved the construction of a wholesale warehouse, including a tyre centre, optical centre, hearing aid centre and food court, with approximately 13,750sq m of floor area.

There would also be a 24-bowser Costco fuel station on site and 825 car parking spaces.

Ipswich mayor Andrew Antoniolli said: “This is a major development and we are delighted that Costco has decided to make Ipswich its second home, after opening its first mega store and petrol station in North Lakes.”

“It will be in an ideal location to service the Ipswich region and, in fact, the entire area west of Brisbane. It will bring thousands of people to Ipswich every day and the direct and indirect benefits to the city will be enormous,” he said.