Ramps for vehicles to park on the roof. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Ramps for vehicles to park on the roof. Photo / Brett Phibbs
In the market for a giant teddy bear, hearing aids, glasses, discounted petrol, a coffin, steak or goods up to 30 per cent cheaper than elsewhere?
Then you might be interested in the construction progress of a new Auckland shop by a global chain that significantly disrupts existing retailers whereverand whenever it arrives.
Costco, second only to Walmart, is nearing completion of its New Zealand debut store at Auckland's Westgate.
Work there shows the three-level building all up, being enclosed and fitted out internally ready for what Costco said some time ago would be an opening in this year's first half.
Food and grocery, cosmetics, household, electronic, clothing, footwear, toys, hearing aids, glasses, sportswear and sporting equipment, electrical and general merchandise will be sold. Overseas, Costco also sells teddy bears bigger than an adult and coffins.
Herald photographer Brett Phibbs flew a drone near the site to show the roof on and much of the cladding up.
Costco is at 2 Gunton Dr, which runs off Maki St, one of the through-roads at Westgate.
It has been built on a greenfields site formerly used for pasture and grazing, between the existing Westgate shopping centre on the north of Harvey Norman Westgate and the Northwestern Motorway.
A Bedpost store is also opposite the new American-headquartered retailer.
But while surrounding retailers have extensive flat areas with internal roads and car parking the 1.4ha Costco site is developed in a far more intensive way to maximise floor area.
Containers still surround many parts of the site, being used as worksite and project management offices and for storage of goods and equipment while construction is underway.
The most significant development lately is starting to lay post-tension floor slabs within the main retail floor spaces.
Around 150 people are working on the site daily.
A green belt of trees, shrubs, lawns and bush front the Maki St side of the store. Most of the western and the northern boundaries adjoin the Kopupaka Reserve. The western boundary is irregular and follows the alignment of a small stream. Another stream or drainage channel runs outside the site along the eastern boundary adjacent to the motorway.
What will be flat car parking on the ground level around the new store now has construction equipment, skips, a crawler crane, pipes and portaloos.
Costco Westgate, a visual presented in resource consent documents. Photo / Auckland Council
Wall linings can be seen stacked inside the new Costco, wrapped in protective covers.
Ramps for vehicles to drive to the upper levels of the store are now formed and in place - and that's something unusual about this Costco because most overseas don't have rooftop parking but this does cater for what the Americans expect to be strong customer demand.
Head contractor Haydn + Rollett has branded blue fence mesh around the exterior of the site which has been secured with gates and metal fencing.
More cladding is yet to be applied to the building's exterior. The builders are expected soon to lay a waterproof bitumen layer then asphalt on concrete for the car parking areas on the middle of two car parking levels. That will be in the middle of the two-car parking levels.
Costco's resource consent said it would have 795 car parks, including 18 accessible spaces, six customer parking spaces for the tyre centre, 43 staff parks and 10 stands for 20 bikes.
Costco Wholesale Fuel will be at 6 Kakano Rd near MEGA Mitre 10. The self-service fuel station will be only for Costco members with one staff member and no retail, air, or carwash. Haydn + Rollett is also building the fuel station, expected to open before the Costco warehouse.
Ramps for vehicles to park on the roof. Photo / Brett Phibbs
The main Costco site is 2.7ha and the store will be the size of two football fields, at 14,740sq m.
The building's resource consent allowed for the construction of the store to be 160m long, 114m wide, 11.9m high to the upper parking deck and 18.5m high to the top of the entrance/lift lobby, fronting Gunton Dr, with a triple-height entrance lobby in the southwestern corner for pedestrian access.
Costco has 558 United States stores, 102 in Canada, 39 in Mexico, 29 in the United Kingdom, 27 in Japan, 16 in Korea, 14 in Taiwan, 12 in Australia, three in Spain and one each in Iceland, China and France.
Its average warehouse space is 13,500sq m, with newer stores slightly larger, its report says, although the number is expressed in square feet as is the US norm.
Warehouses on average operate on a seven-day, 70-hour week but their fuel operations are open longer.
