Prospective open date of August 26 for Hunter's first Costco at Boolaroo

The planned date for the Boolaroo store was announced by Costco vice president of operations Robert Leiss at a Property Council of Australia event about the transformation of Lake Macquarie on Friday.

An audience of about 200 people at the event heard from numerous stakeholders, including Mr Leiss who spoke about what the retailer is bringing to its first NSW store outside of Sydney. It will be the fourth store in the state for the world's third largest retailer, which has 107 million members.

He said the 14,000-square-metre warehouse would include a tyre shop, petrol station, food court "where you can feed your entire family for under $20", a jewellery counter and specials for the opening including gigantic stuffed teddy bears.

Furniture will also be brought in a couple of times a year, Mr Leiss said.

The store will also feature an internal "roadshow" pop-up shop, where local businesses can set up a temporary shop for between 10 days and two weeks.

The business works off a membership model, with shoppers required to sign up to be able to buy items.

Memberships are being sold at a pop-up store inside Charlestown Square for $60 a year for individuals and $55 for businesses.

Mr Leiss said Costco had a few other locations in mind for the store but found that the Boolaroo spot "was a great fit".

"It's a fantastic site, we can have level parking, we can the entire building, the fuel station all on the one site. It's really good we don't have to do stash parking or parking on the roof," he said. "It has affordable housing, we have about 35 people transferring up here. Some might not agree with that but it's more affordable than where they were for most of them.

"It's a great quality of life, it seems like a really great place to live and a great region to be in and we're going to bring some real competition to the area. And the best part is, it will create about 250 to 300 jobs for the area."

Mr Leiss said construction was well underway.

"It will be a pretty quick build from this point on," he said.

He also showed an image of the grand opening of the Perth store last March, where people were lined up around the warehouse at 6am.

"If we do open up on August 26, this is what we're hoping to see," Mr Leiss said.

The business will be the jewel in the crown of the Cockle Creek precinct, which also includes a plan for more than 500 new homes. About 20 hectares of land are left in the precinct for development.

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