Costco, the membership-only big box retail store — the fifth largest retailer in the world — will open a location in Kyle in front of the EVO entertainment complex, possibly as soon as a year from now.
The public announcement was made today at the State of the City address and was made possible by action taken earlier in the day during an emergency meeting of the city council.
The Kyle location will be Costco’s 814th worldwide location and the 563rd in the United States. In 2020, the last year this information was available, Costco had 105.5 million members worldwide. Costco stores range in size from 73,000 to 205,000 square feet, with the average store being 143,000 square feet. The Kyle location is planned to be 150,000 square feet, according to an announcement today from the city.
“The new Costco location will be located along Interstate 35 between Kohlers Crossing and Kyle Crossing in the Dry River District Development, a 65-acre mixed-use commercial development by Endeavor Real Estate Group that is anchored by Evo Entertainment and Home Depot,” the city said in its announcement.
Today’s announcement is a major victory for City Manager Scott Sellers who has been working behind the scenes since his arrival in Kyle in January of 2015 to land a Costco here.
“We have been working to make Kyle a hub for high-paying and high-quality jobs along the I-35 corridor and having a company like Costco invest in our city is a valuable opportunity for our strong and always growing workforce” Sellers said today in a prepared statement. “Costco is not only one of the top retailers in the world, but they also have a proven track record of taking care of their employees with very competitive wages and benefits.”
Costco’s minimum wage is $16 per hour and the average wage for hourly Costco employees in the United States, excluding any overtime premium, but including an extra check component, is around $24, according to the city’s announcement. The new location in Kyle is expected to create approximately 225 jobs.
Brian Whelan, Costco’s Northwest Atlantic Division senior vice president, who represented the company at today’s State of the City luncheon, said he hopes construction on the Kyle store will begin early next year and that it will be open to the public by July 1, 2022.
The Kyle City Council met early today to approve a Chapter 380 Development Agreement, which, according to Mayor Travis Mitchell, provides Costco “with about $5 million in tax rebates over 15 years. It is projected that Costco will produce about $11 million on top of that $5 million in revenues (to the city). So that’s just under $1 million a year net benefit to the city. Certainly a win for us.”
Mitchell emphasized the city’s overall commercial growth during his luncheon State of the City address today noting that last year Kyle issued new permits for 761,000 square feet of commercial space.
“Even during the pandemic, that was a record for Kyle,” the mayor said. “And yet, in perspective, in the first five months of this year, Kyle has issued permits for 1.3 million square feet of commercial space. That means 2021 has already shattered the records of all previous years.
“The City of Kyle remains eager to offer incentives for high quality commercial development,” Mitchell said. “But I want to publicly state, our standards are high. Candidates for permits must clearly demonstrate how they will help the city continue to prosper, in the short term and in the long term. Costco will do that and that’s why we are proud to partner with them.
"We’re looking for high-end jobs, high-end retail, vertical mixed-use, vertical Class-A office, boutique hotels and sit-down restaurants,” he added.
Two American companies — Walmart and Amazon — rank as the first and second leading retailers in the world, and two German corporations operating discount grocery stores — Schwarz Gruppe (operating under the Lidl and Kaufland brands) and Aldi (operators of 10,000 stores in 20 countries) — rank third and fourth on the list of the world’s leading retailers.
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