LOWELL -- Plans for a Costco warehouse store are on hold, a spokesman for the city of Lowell confirmed Friday.
The "Talk Business and Politics" website quoted Hank Kelley, the chief executive and executive broker of Kelley Commercial Partners in Little Rock, saying the Washington state-based store chain has canceled its contract to buy the selected site. City planning documents showed the proposed site was on the southwest corner of Concord Street and Pleasant Grove Road.
"I can confirm the contract has been terminated, but can't comment any further based upon our agreement with our client," Kelley told Talk Business.
The city spokesman said Costco has not given up on plans for a location in Northwest Arkansas, but decided against proceeding at this time. The company does not comment on plans for any upcoming stores, the Costco media relations department at its Issaquah, Wash., headquarters said earlier.
Mayor Chris Moore of Lowell was asked for comment, but declined.
No Northwest Arkansas location is on the list of stores opening soon on the company's website, but the site lists only stores opening within the next three months.
Plans submitted to the city for the site show the proposed warehouse would have covered 160,979 square feet with 827 parking spaces.
The closest existing Costco stores to Northwest Arkansas are in Springfield, Mo., and Tulsa, Okla., according to the chain's store locator website. The Lowell store would be Costco's second in Arkansas. The Costco location in Little Rock was announced in 2020 and opened in July 2021.
The members-only retailer competes with Bentonville-based Walmart's Sam's Club stores. Costco reported net sales of $222.7 billion in 2022, according to the company's annual report, a 16% increase from 2021. Reported net income was $5.8 billion, an increase of 17% from the previous year. The company also reported $4.2 billion in membership fees, a 9% year-to-year increase.
The chain has 847 locations worldwide, including 583 in the United States and Puerto Rico, according to the report.
Sam's Club is the nation's other top members-only retailer. Unlike Costco, which is a stand-alone retailer, Sam's Club is a division of Walmart Inc.
The latest published financial figures for Sam's Club are for the fiscal year ending Jan. 1, 2022. In that fiscal year Sam's Club reported revenues of $73.6 billion.
Sam's Club announced in January it plans to build more than 30 stores over the next few years in its first expansion since 63 clubs were closed in 2018.
Sam's Club operates about 600 stores in the United States and Puerto Rico.