Asheville mayor says West Asheville Costco project is back on track

West Asheville’s delayed Costco proposal is moving again after Mayor Esther Manheimer said she met with company representatives and came away calling the project back on track. That is a real shift from earlier this year, when Costco withdrew its application after delays and said higher costs were part of the reason.

But “back on track” does not mean the store is ready to rise at Enka Commerce Park. The proposed project, now tied to Enka Heritage Parkway near the iconic Enka clock tower, was previously described as a roughly 160,940-square-foot warehouse with a gas station, a tire center, a 32-pump fueling station and 839 parking spaces. Later coverage also said the surrounding development could include a medical office building and a sit-down restaurant, underscoring that this is not a simple big-box store but a much larger change to the west side’s commercial landscape.

Supporters have treated Costco as one of the biggest private economic prizes still in play for Buncombe County. Local reporting has said the project could create about 300 jobs and generate millions of dollars in sales-tax revenue for Asheville and Buncombe County. Councilmember Kim Roney has also said there are about 19,000 Costco members in the region who currently drive to South Carolina and spend about $20 million there, a measure of how much business local leaders believe is leaking out of the Asheville market.

The transportation stakes are just as large. A new bridge opened Feb. 12 in Enka Commerce Park to help divert traffic from Sand Hill Road, and later discussion raised the possibility of pulling forward unfunded I-26 Connector improvements to help with congestion on Smoky Park Highway. Those fixes matter because a project of this size would add trips to a corridor already carrying shoppers, commuters and freight through the Enka and Candler area.

What changed is the conversation, not the finish line. Manheimer said she met with Costco representatives this week, and city leaders have continued talking with the company, the sellers of the site and the North Carolina Department of Transportation. After months of delay and a formal withdrawal, the retailer is once again engaged. For West Asheville residents, the question is no longer whether Costco is interested, but whether the project can clear the traffic, infrastructure and land-use hurdles that stalled it in the first place.