A long-anticipated second Tri-Cities Costco appears to be moving closer to development.

Two building permit applications were filed with the city of Richland for work at 3125 Queensgate Drive with Costco Wholesale listed as the owner. Neither permit has been issued, and a lease for the state land where it would be located has not been finalized.

A Seattle-based architecture and design firm with a history of working with Costco submitted a construction permit application Aug. 16. for a 182,644-square-foot building, valued at $22.9 million.

The project’s “scope includes but is not limited to building shell, canopies, interior tenant improvements and finishes,” according to the application description. The application also indicates that the project will include 1,024 parking spaces.

Costco Wholesale is listed as the property owner, with MG2 as the applicant and Lydig Construction as the contractor.

MG2 has partnered with Costco for 30 years, according to the company’s website, helping to streamline building design, cost management and more. “It takes just 110 days from the time construction begins to the moment doors open to their members,” MG2 said on its website.

Lydig Construction, which has a Kennewick office, also has worked on several Costco projects.

A permit application for commercial grading was submitted to the city July 23. The project is valued at $1.5 million, with grading involving 1.25 million square feet and 135,428 cubic yards of material.

Costco Wholesale is listed as the owner/builder, while the state Department of Natural Resources is the property owner.

Barghausen Consulting Engineers Inc. is listed as the applicant. The engineering company, which has an office in Richland, touts 30 years of work on Costco projects. 

“We have been involved in Costco’s various development programs including ground-up warehouses, warehouse expansions, car washes, tire centers, parking expansions, ADA improvements, retail fueling facilities, propane facilities, optical centers, and more,” according to Barghausen’s website.

A right of way commercial infrastructure sub-permit was submitted on Aug. 23 for utility and roadway plans both on and off site.

Paperwork filed under the state Environmental Policy Act, or SEPA, outlines Costco’s plans to develop a retail warehouse and fuel facility in Richland’s Queensgate area.

| Courtesy Department of Natural Resources Pending permits

After permit applications are submitted, city staff review them to make sure the applications are complete, said Mandy Wallner, economic development manager for the city of Richland.

The staff then gets a first round of comments back to the applicant. The comments could include questions or changes that need to be made.

“Depending on how good all of the documentation is, there could be multiple rounds,” before a permit is approved, Wallner said. 

“It’s always tricky when it’s just the application versus an approved permit,” she said. “There’s a lot of things that can change.”

As for traffic concerns in the busy Queensgate area, Wallner said that improvements are typically triggered by the results of traffic reports.

“If they end up determining that’s the site that they want to move forward with, then there’s traffic mitigation and studies that go on in review of that project to identify impact,” she said.

A lease for the land

In March of this year, paperwork filed under the State Environmental Policy Act, or SEPA, detailed Costco’s development plans for the Richland site and a lease with the state Department of Natural Resources.

DNR proposed to lease 29.48 acres, with 20 acres dedicated to the new Costco and the remaining property divided into seven smaller lots for future development.

The lease is still being negotiated, said Courtney James, a communications manager for DNR, in a Sept. 9 email to the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business. “We are still wrapping up an agreement to the lease negotiations and continue to have productive meetings with Costco,” James said in the email. “We’re really eager to continue the process and have appreciated working with Costco on this exciting project so far.”

Costco has not listed the Richland warehouse as a new location, though its SEPA application said the new store was scheduled to open around August 2025.