New details have come to light surrounding Regina receiving a second Costco location. The province says the retail chain’s initial plan called for both a store and a distribution warehouse at the Global Transportation Hub (GTH). Crews have started soil testing at the future Costco site in Regina’s Westerra neighbourhood. It comes days after the city offered a $6.7 million incentive to have the project built there rather than at the provincially owned GTH. Both the GTH and Westerra fall within Regina city limits. However, the province collects property taxes at the GTH and shares 30 per cent of tax revenue with the city. “Today we asked the minister to apologize four times in the House for costing Regina taxpayers an extra $7 million for getting a second Costco in Regina. He failed to do that,” NDP MLA Jared Clarke told reporters. GTH President Daniel Hersche says the discussions were handled between real estate agents for Costco and the province. “You know we use Colliers as a realty broker so Costco’s agent would have approached Colliers about potentially locating out at the GTH,” he explained. The province says that initially, Costco was talking about something even larger, a store with an adjacent distribution warehouse. “Think of it as servicing Saskatchewan,” Hershe added. “You order in products, like appliances or TVs, and you live in Moose Jaw or Davidson – so they just go into one facility and get distributed out there.” The NDP believes the province should have said no to Costco from the start. “Regina residents shouldn’t have to be on the hook and trying to spend more money or have more of their tax dollars used because the province wants to compete with them,” Clarke added. “So absolutely better communication from the GTH and the government to the city would always be a great thing.” According to Hersche, Costco has built stores in areas similar to the GTH in the past, such as in Saskatoon and Calgary. “So, just to say ‘no that we won’t look at it.’ Again, that’s pretty short sighted. To have a major investment that creates jobs and just say no automatically – you have to evaluate everything on a case-by-case basis.” The GTH says it is willing to talk to the city about what should go where in the future. “I think we definitely need to make sure that we’re communicating at all times [with the city],” Hersche said. “Because again, we have no intent to compete with the city. That’s not what we’re trying to do.” Described as an “inland port and foreign trade zone,” the GTH was envisioned to offer businesses competitively priced industrial land to establish logistical hubs. The GTH aims to attract warehouses, infrastructure for value added agriculture and manufacturing. As of May 12, around 450 acres are still for sale at the GTH, while roughly 1050 acres have been sold. According to Hersche, the organization currently carries around $18 million in debt, drastically decreased from more than $40 million reported several years ago.
