Newport News City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to authorize Costco’s move from its location on Jefferson Plaza to
The new property will include , along with a members-only 32-pump gas station with queuing space for up to 70 vehicles. The site also will double its existing parking capacity to more than 800 spaces.
Ferguson Enterprises occupied the 32-acre property for more than 25 years before it consolidated its operations into its headquarters in City Center in 2021, leaving three buildings vacant. With the development, those buildings will be demolished, along with the surrounding green space for the new project.
Costco will occupy 20 acres of the site and the remaining land will be split into two parcels, which the wholesale giant eventually will sell.
“It’s a big win for the city,” Mayor Phillip Jones said during Tuesday’s ӽ紫ý.
Costco wasn’t the original plan for the property, according to the city. A 1992 city plan aimed to turn the site into a hotel and conference center, or some other corporate office to accommodate the nearby Newport News-Williamsburg Airport. The city even wanted a high-end office to use Ferguson’s existing space and marketed it for two years to no avail. Now, with , the city is pivoting to Costco.
“Newport News is always evolving,” Jones said. “Costco had outgrown that space, and we were glad that we were able to find another spot to accommodate.”
Bringing a popular store complete with an upgraded gas station to the area means traffic — between 150 and 200 more cars per day during peak traffic hours on Interstate 64 to northbound Jefferson Avenue ramp, according to an April memorandum from the Department of Transportation.
The project includes several traffic improvements in the hopes of mitigating further backup on an already busy road, including adding a right-turn lane at the entrances, a southbound left-turn lane at the Jefferson Avenue and Boykin Lane intersection, extending southbound left-turn lanes at Jefferson Avenue and Bland Boulevard and creating two new turn lanes on Bland Boulevard.
There will also be a required 20-foot transitional buffer along Jefferson Avenue filled with vegetation, as well as a raised median to for pedestrians while crossing Jefferson Avenue and Boykin Boulevard.
As for the space Costco is moving from, at the corner of Oyster Point Road and Jefferson Avenue, new things may be on the horizon, according to Lindsey Carney Smith, an attorney representing the wholesaler.
“The current space is not owned by Costco. They are a tenant in that center, so it’s not entirely in their control what’s going to backfill that,” Carney Smith said. “But we are told by the landlord that they have some really interesting national prospects of the quality of Costco that could backfill that space.”
Devlin Epding, 757-510-4037, devlin.epding@virginiamedia.com
