Moses Lake officials refute online claims about Costco

MOSES LAKE - Moses Lake city officials denied claims on Facebook they stopped Costco from coming to town.

Several public comments on a recently created Facebook page called "Bring Costco to Moses Lake," intended to petition the company to bring a warehouse location to the area, accused Moses Lake City Council and staff of previously blocking Costco from coming. The comments "ruffled the feathers" of Councilmember Jon Lane, who said the posts are "illogical, unfair and untrue" at Tuesday's city council meeting.

"We have a lot of good things going on in the community and that is our goal to recruit new retail, new industry and new jobs in Moses Lake," Lane said. "We're limited as to what we can do. "I hope they do come when the time is right."

Community Development Director Gilbert Alvarado said there is misinformation on what the city council is authorized to do or not do, adding any business wanting to locate in Moses Lake is not decided by the city.

"It's not that the city council is not letting them show up here," Alvarado said, adding Costco currently has plans to open just three new locations next year, in areas with very different demographics than Moses Lake.

The three locations include Katy, Texas, a suburb of Houston, Riverhead, N.Y., about 70 miles outside New York City, and North Brunswick, N.J., a suburb of Newark.

"We would all like to see them here, but the reality is, based on the facts of their models and where they're looking at, their visions, it's near those larger populous areas," Alvarado said.

He added Costco locations are usually outside populous areas where development costs and property are cheaper, but they can still pull from the higher population numbers.

Alvarado also said Costco does not and has not previously owned property in Moses Lake. Numerous comments on the Facebook page, which has more than 5,700 likes, claim the city denied selling property to Costco for development.

"The City of Moses Lake does not own property that we're setting up for development," Alvarado said, adding much of the property owned by the city are parks.

"We're not in the business of competing with the private sector," he said.

Both Alvarado and Lane cited recent success of new retail businesses, with more than $54 million in projects this year alone and more coming, could draw more future business.

"If we had 100,000 people, they would probably be here," Lane said. "They're going to be here when the time is right. We don't want them to come in when they won't be successful because there's nothing worse than having a big company come in and then fail, and then leave us."

Lane also urged residents to support local businesses already here, supporting the local economy to allow for future growth.