Many Rhode Islanders have a new closest Costco opening next month. But will one come to RI?

On March 12, Costco will get a little closer to Rhode Island, as the retail giant continues to shy away from the Ocean State.

Costco is set to open a new location in Sharon, Massachusetts on March 12 at 160 Old Post Rd. That new location will be, for most people in central and northern Rhode Island, the closest Costco, with a shorter drive time than the Dedham and Avon, Massachusetts, stores.

The Costco in Dedham has its own liquor store but the store in Avon does not. The Sharon store will be 162,000 square feet. No reporting about the project indicates it will have a liquor store.

The Costco is expected to be so popular that, according to WPRI-TV, the retailer requested four police details to help direct traffic outside the store for the first four days. The new store also comes with its own new traffic signals, part of a larger mixed-use development in the area.

Where is the closest Costco to Rhode Island?

• From downtown Providence to the Dedham Costco is a 36-mile, 40-minute drive (depending on traffic).

• From downtown Providence to the Avon Costco is a 42-mile, 50-minute drive (depending on traffic).

The new Costco in Sharon won’t change the calculus for anyone living near the border with Connecticut, where the Costco in East Lyme is closer.

While it might be farther away, the Costco in Avon has one big thing going for it: It’s next to IKEA, another brand that hasn’t landed in Rhode Island.

North Kingstown is about the center point in the state in terms of Costco locations, an estimated 49-mile, 55 minute drive to East Lyme or a 45-mile, 52-minute drive to the new Costco in Sharon.

Will Costco ever come to Rhode Island?

Plans for a Costco in Rhode Island have been proposed and shot down or proposed and then pulled back repeatedly in the past few years.

The first set of plans was for a Costco at Mulligan’s Island in Cranston in 2020, which drew the ire of neighbors and city officials. Those plans were then pulled before a city council vote.

Cranston was yet again the proposed site of a Costco in August 2023 at the site of the former medium security prison in the Howard Industrial Park. Prior to the Costco proposal the site had been planned for a warehouse. It sold at auction for $6.2 million. Mayor Ken Hopkins touted the plans on the 17-acre site.

While much of the state was salivating at the idea of closer $1.50 hot dogs and $5 rotisserie chickens, the retailer pulled its plans in January 2024.

“No sooner than they gave us everything did they retract it all without prejudice and now it’s not moving forward,” Cranston’s planning director at the time, Jason Pezzullo, said. “For a brief second it was there, and then it was gone.”

Cranston planning officials had the full set of plans for three days before they were pulled, with no reason given.

With Cranston out of the running, other mayors and elected officials in the state tried wooing the retailer, with former Warwick city council president Stephen McAllister inviting the retailer, in February 2024, to tour the city and sit down with city and state leaders.

Other cities and towns then started to court Costco themselves, including officials in Smithfield. None of that courting came to anything and Rhode Island remains without a Costco.

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Follow Wheeler Cowperthwaite on X, @WheelerReporter, or reach him by email at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal.com.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Will Costco open in RI? New closest store is in Sharon, Massachusetts