This had already been posted in the ' Costco in Active Negotiations - OKCTalk ' thread, but I felt like this deserved it's own thread. Pretty big news and very exciting. This will surely pave way to new stores in Tulsa and eventually OKC.

Says Costco will officially announce a store today going into 103rd Street and Memorial Drive.

Costco will open south Tulsa location

City officials on Monday will make official what has been rumored for months — Costco is coming to town, sources familiar with the negotiations told the Tulsa World.

The city has scheduled a 3:30 p.m. news conference at 103rd Street and Memorial Drive to publicly welcome the wholesale giant to Oklahoma.

Plans call for the store to be built on the west side of Memorial Drive between 103rd and 104th streets.

Permitting and construction of the store at that site is expected to take at least a year.

Seattle-based Costco Wholesale Corp. is a membership-only store with locations in more than 40 states.

The company is likely to benefit from Tulsa's recently approved retail incentive program. The program allows up to $2 million in sales-tax rebates for big-box retailers deemed capable of drawing a significant number of shoppers from outside the city.

The rebates can be used only to reimburse retailers that build their own public infrastructure and would be paid over several years only if the retailer generates a certain amount of sales-tax revenue each year.

Clay Bird, director of the Mayor's Office of Economic Development, told councilors last year that the incentive program will help Tulsa compete with suburbs and other large cities, which offer similar programs or one-time incentives.

Tulsa's program would focus on what Bird called "destination" retailers —— stores that would potentially draw shoppers from as far as surrounding states —— and retailers that would be unique to Tulsa.

At the time, he named Costco and Cabela's as retailers the city would attempt to lure with the new program. He said stores such as Target would not be eligible because they are not unique to Tulsa.



- Read more here: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local...tml?mode=story