Four years after announcing it planned to move its east Ottawa location to Shoppers City East, Costco has officially made good on its pledge in a big way.
The retail warehouse giant cut the ribbon on a new 161,000-square-foot store at 1405 Blair Towers Pl. on Thursday morning. The new location is more than 30 per cent larger than the former Costco store on Cyrville Road and the chain’s second-largest outlet in Canada after a 182,000-square-foot store in St. John’s.
The company said the new store features wider aisles and a larger selection of food offerings than the Cyrville Road location, including an on-site bakery and expanded produce section. The store also has an optometrist on site as well as a hearing aid centre and an expanded pharmacy, among other amenities.
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“The upgraded Costco has created valuable employment opportunities for the region, and will strengthen the local economy by offering a wider selection of goods and services to our residents and visitors,” Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said in a statement.
The new location will have a total of 515 full- and part-time employees, 50 more than the old Cyrville Road location.
Costco’s former east-end store at the corner of Cyrville and Innes roads had long been the subject of complaints about a lack of parking. The new location has 760 spots for customers plus 150 more off-site for Costco employees, up from a total of 740 spaces at the old store, which will be converted into a Costco Business Centre.
Costco Canada, which is headquartered on Hunt Club Road, operates 100 stores in nine provinces and employs more than 40,000 people. In the 2019 fiscal year, the chain’s Canadian operations generated more than US$21 billion in revenues.