Mayor Basran says he is “pleased” following the news of a development application from Costco for a new store and gas bar in Kelowna, adding that he has “always stated” he would like to keep the business in our community.
During the mayoral election of 2018, Basran was criticized for being the one in charge when Costco got away, as rumours circulated it would be moving to West Kelowna.
“There were people running against me who made this Costco issue basically their only platform agenda,” said Basran.
“I instructed staff to work with people from Costco to do everything they can to explore different sites in our community, and hopefully [they] would find a site suitable for their needs and reinvest in our community — and so here we are.”
While the proposed location is already making headlines throughout the city, Basran wants to remind locals that the move is “not a done deal.”
The proposal will need to go through numerous steps before getting the go ahead, including having the property rezoned for commercial use.
“This application just came through the door a couple of days ago, it is going to go through our standard process which takes a couple of months, so shovels in the ground at this point are not imminent,” said Basran.
As for traffic flow concerns near the proposed site, Basran says “it's too early to tell” how it will be affected.
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