First look at $100m+ Costco Wholesale NZ store at Westgate

Brian from New Lynn

Amid job losses, closures and business ruin from the lockdown, one of the world's biggest businesses plans to thrive when it starts up in New Zealand. Costco Wholesale is the world's second-largest retailer after Walmart and it said last winter that it would be open here next year, selling 20-30 per cent cheaper than elsewhere. Resource consent application documents are with Auckland Council for the operation at 67 Maki St, Westgate. How the store will look, car park numbers, layout, landscaping, lighting and fuel station details are revealed. Architectural drawings, engineering reports, geotechnical and retail floor area plans and a 14-page visual simulation are lodged. The operation is for a large-format store west of the Harvey Norman store. No physical site works have yet begun, but the Overseas Investment Office has cleared the application for Costco to buy the land from NZ Retail Property Group. The site is bounded by the Northwestern Motorway or SH16 to the east, Gunton Dr to the south and Maki St to the west. Most of the western and the northern boundaries adjoin the Kopupaka Reserve. The western boundary is irregular and follows the alignment of a small stream. Another stream or drainage channel runs outside the site along the eastern boundary adjacent to the motorway. The store will be the size of two rugby fields, at 14,740sq m. The 2.7ha irregular-shaped site is bound by Sakaria Stream to the west, Totara Creek and the Northwestern Motorway and is presently a grassed paddock.
Costco's joining fee could be about $60/person. Food and grocery, cosmetics, household, electronic, electrical and general merchandise will be sold. The store will be prepared for the day's trading in the early hours of the morning when goods will arrive and go on the shop floor on pallets or racks. Racking will be largely palletised. Pharmaceutical, audiological, optician, dine-in food, tyre sale and fitting will be in the three-level building, with two levels of parking. The building will be 160m long, 114m wide, 11.9m high to the upper parking deck and 18.5m high to the top of the entrance/lift lobby, fronting Gunton Dr, with a triple-height entrance lobby in the southwestern corner for pedestrian access.
Vehicle access will be off Gunton Dr, with ramps on the southern face. The building will cover most of the site but the standard rectangular format is compromised to account for the irregular shape of the western boundary against the stream. Parking is on top, compared to most other Costcos around the world where it's beside the store. Costco will have 795 car parks, including 18 accessible spaces, six customer parking spaces for the tyre centre, 43 staff parks and 10 stands for 20 bikes.
Costco Wholesale Fuel will be at 6 Kakano Rd where a Palmers Garden Centre and a Mitre 10 are to the northwest and a Resene Colour shop is west. The self-service fuel station will be only for Costco members with one staff member and no retail, air, or carwash. Buildings will be only a canopy above the bowsers, small data hut and staff amenities. Five rows of bowsers are proposed, with each row consisting of three bowsers, making a total of 30 refuelling spaces. Four underground fuel storage tanks will be laid for 440,000 litres: three for petroleum, one for diesel.
=========================================================