Mayor welcomes plans for St. Catharines Costco
Despite concerns from Costco shoppers that the retail store they’re used to is moving to Niagara Falls, Mayor Walter Sendzik said the region as a whole will benefit because of the format change Costco plans for the St. Catharines property.
“It’s 200-plus new jobs that Niagara didn’t have a year ago,” he said.
“While people are lamenting ... the loss of the actual customer-focused part of the store moving to Niagara Falls, for Niagara it’s a net gain of another 200 jobs.”
The company plans to transform the St. Catharines store into the Costco Business Centre, after the new Niagara Falls location at Niagara Square opens in November.
Following a temporary closure for renovations, the revamped location on North Service Road will have a new format and focus on wholesale services for small businesses rather than retail sales.
Sendzik called the corporate decision “a strong signal that corporate Canada sees St. Catharines as an urban centre that can be home to a distribution centre like that.”
He said the decision to locate the facility here “validates a lot of the economic development work that’s been going on by the city and the Region, positioning St. Catharines as the urban centre of Niagara.”
For St. Catharines business owners, including Chris Lowes who runs the Mahtay Café on St. Paul Street, it means he will no longer have to drive as far as Hamilton to pick up supplies for his business.
“I think with a Costco in Grimsby and now one in Niagara Falls, it would be good to have one of the three for food service and business-related,” he said.
“That’s how Costco actually started. That was their roots.”
Lowes said he is not aware of any other wholesale venue of that type in the city catering to businesses like his, although there are other large distribution companies.
“St. Catharines is underserved by that. For what they’re providing, no, there isn’t any,” he said, adding he has had to drive to Niagara Falls or sometimes Hamilton to buy supplies he needs for the café.
Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce executive director Mishka Balsom called Costco’s plan for the St. Catharines location “really positive news for all of Niagara.”
“It’s a newer concept for Costco to have this type of business warehouse available,” she said.