Costco is opening a new store in Stanislaus County. Here’s where and when it will open

After years of shoppers wishing and hoping for one, a new Costco store is coming to Riverbank’s planned Crossroads West shopping center. Work has begun on the site of the new retail complex, on the corner of Claribel and Oakdale roads, across from the existing Crossroads Regional Shopping Center. The retailer will serve as the anchor for the new development, which will include other businesses and restaurants on the 555,000-square-foot property.

The wholesale shopping juggernaut already has two locations in Stanislaus County, one in Modesto on Pelandale Avenue and one in Turlock on Tegner Road. But rumors and wishful thinking about another Costco coming to the region have been circulating for years, particularly since 2019, when plans for the Crossroads West companion development were approved. Walnut Creek-based Browman Development Co., the same firm behind the popular existing Crossroads shopping center, is overseeing the commercial development of Crossroads West. The site takes up the northwest corner of the busy intersection that was home to Dutch Hollow Farms before the project began moving forward. The farm attraction since has moved to a new site off Milnes Road.

“It’s huge, I mean, obviously from a sales tax perspective, it’s huge for any town to have a Costco,” said Browman leasing agent Will Bettencourt. “It really solidified this area, this intersection, as the regional shopping destination for those nearby towns. It’s big.”

Crews are doing initial work on the property, including grading and leveling. Bettencourt said to expect the groundwork to go on for a few months, followed by a few months of site and utility work. Then later in the year, he said, Costco is expected to begin work on the building, with an anticipated opening mid-2024. The Riverbank location is expected to be around the same size as the area’s other facilities, about 150,000 square feet. The store also is expected to be the first tenant to open in the shopping complex. Now that Costco has signed on, Bettencourt said he expects other retailers to follow shortly.

Browman is targeting other shops, sit-down and drive-thru restaurants, clothing sellers, banks and fitness centers for the soon-to-be-built spaces. Initial plans for the multi-use development also include an apartment complex of more than 200 units. But Bettencourt said final plans for any residential component are still in the works, and initial construction would be a good year and a half to two years away. That housing would be separate from the nearly 2,000-home subdivision planned on the 380-acre plot just north of the Costco site. The new housing development, which is part of the larger Crossroads West Specific Plan, broke ground in early 2021. Since then, about 75 homes have been completed or started out of planned 114 single-family homes that will be part of the subdivision’s first phase, said FCB Homes President Tom Doucette.

The Stockton-based developer said the next phase, which should start sometime next year, would build an additional 114 single-family units to the south of Westgate Drive (formerly Crawford Road). Currently, all of the existing homes are to the north of the street. The second phase will also include a 40,000-square-foot park. Riverbank City Councilman Luis Uribe said the Costco news was welcome. The city, he said, should get ready for changes with the arrival of the major retailer, which reported $222.7 billion in net sales for the 2022 fiscal year.