Costco store closing in Springdale, city official confirms

SPRINGDALE, Ohio (WXIX) - The Costco store in Springdale will close this fall as a new location opens in Butler County, a city official confirms to FOX19 NOW.

Andy Kuchta, Springdale’s economic development director, said big box retailer’s real estate company officially notified him earlier this month, on July 7.

“We had an initial meeting with them in April to review different options of converting our store into a Costco business center location. Since that meeting in April, we haven’t heard anything from them. Their real estate agent called me and said the operations team at Costco spent the past 2.5 months reviewing options for that conversion and determined it could not cost-effectively be done due to the size of our store and the smaller business center.”

The 150,000-square-foot Costco in Springdale employs about 100 workers, he estimated. It opened in 2000, according to the store’s website.

Generally, when a Costco store closes, the employees there can transfer to other locations. We reached out to the Costco store in Springdale but were told Tuesday that the only person authorized to speak to the media is the general manager who is out until Thursday.

Kuchta said Costco’s realtor did not provide a firm closing date for the Springdale store, but it’s expected will be around the time the new store opens in Liberty Township.

At last check, that will be before Thanksgiving.

The 160,529 square-foot Costco store in Liberty is under construction now on the $133 million Freedom Pointe development at Cox Road and Liberty Way, just east of Interstate 75.

The store will be on the northeast corner of the Liberty Way/Cox Road intersection, on Cox Road opposite The Christ Hospital.

Freedom Pointe will include 402 apartments and townhomes, Affiliates in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery and a hotel, according to the township.

Plans also call for more retail, offices and restaurants.

Kuchta said he wasn’t surprised the Springdale store was closing.

“It’s not unexpected, frankly, and I don’t think this is the end of the turbulence we are going to see in our real estate market, in the Cincinnati market in general, but specifically in the Springdale market as well. The city has spent the last two years pivoting to create a post-pandemic economic growth strategy and we’re executing on that right now.

“Currently we have $82 million in construction underway which will add 445 new market-rate apartment units to the city by this time next year and when the Tri-County Mall revitalization really starts in terms of construction, that’s going to add another $400 million and 336 additional market-rate apartments when that first phase is done.”

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