Costco Wholesale Corp., the big Issaquah, Wash.-based membership warehouse chain, has agreed to buy land in the Spokane Valley from Home Depot USA Inc. and hopes to build a new, bigger store there to replace its outlet at the periphery of downtown Spokane.


Costco Chairman Jeff Brotman says the two companies are going through closing procedures on the transaction and could finalize the purchase within two months. If the transaction is completed, Costco plans to build a 148,000-square-foot store with self-service fueling pumps west of the 130,000-square-foot Home Depot store near the northwest corner of Sprague Avenue and Fancher Road. It takes about six months to build a new Costco store, Brotman says, so its possible that the planned new store here would open later this year.


Brotman says hes unsure of the acreage Costco would buy, but the transaction would involve a significant portion of the 27 acres that Home Depot owns and has partially developed there.


The new store would replace the 100,000-square-foot Costco at 800 E. Third, which is smaller than most of the companys outlets. Costco has been rumored for a number of years to be looking for a suitable location to build a bigger store. Rumors have involved sites ranging from Liberty Lake to the Summit property west of downtown Spokane.


The commercial area in which Costco is looking to build its new store has seen a lot of activity in recent years. Home Depot built its store in 1997, and Heilig-Meyers Co. recently constructed a new 38,000-square-foot furniture store there. The furniture retailer will tear down its old store at 5415 E. Sprague this year, giving better visibility from Sprague Avenue to the new stores, just north of there.