Costco considering Hardy Parkway site for Dallas store

Costco has submitted plans for a building that could be the largest single retail store under one roof built in Paulding County.

The Washington State-based company is considering building a 152,000-square-foot building on a 25-acre site on Charles Hardy Parkway in Dallas.

If built, it will be larger than Sam’s Club’s 133,000-squarefoot building on Jimmy Lee Smith Parkway in Hiram.

Costco is a membership warehouse club which operates 10 stores in Metro Atlanta.

Preliminary plans submitted to the Paulding County government show the building is planned for construction on the north side of Ga. Hwy. 120, near Gerber Collision’s building at 1577 Charles Hardy Parkway.

County planning, engineering and building officials currently are reviewing what Costco representatives submitted, said county planning director Chris Robinson.

Those submissions include building plans as well as civil plans which show the site’s grading and landscaping; and site plans which show the location of the building on the site, parking area and travel areas around and within the site, drainage facilities, sanitary sewer lines, water lines, trails, lighting and more.

Plans show it will be a onestory retail building about 34 feet tall.

Facing the building’s front, parking will be on the right and rear sides – or east and north sides – and include 765 spaces. Current plans show no parking directly in front of the building.

About three-quarters of the site already is zoned for a retail operation the size of Costco. However, the rear of the site containing about six acres must be rezoned from residential to commercial for the building, Robinson said.

The company reportedly is near to closing on purchase of the 25-acre site. Costco representatives have told county officials they are targeting late 2019 for opening for business in Dallas.

Costco officials said the company does not comment publicly on future locations or store plans.

According to its website, the company’s first location opened in 1976 under the Price Club name in San Diego. It opened its first warehouse location in Seattle, Washington, in 1983 and now has more than 200 locations worldwide. It reported annual sales of $126.1 billion in 2015.

Its metro Atlanta locations are in Morrow, Duluth, Brookhaven, Buford, Sandy Springs, Cumberland, Alpharetta, Woodstock, Cumming and Kennesaw.