The decision means the project can proceed through the fast-track approvals process, although it has not yet received final approval.<\/p>\n
According to the decision notice, the development is expected to generate approximately $57 million in gross domestic product (GDP) annually once operational, supporting the equivalent of 486 full-time jobs.<\/p>\n
Construction is expected to generate a further $63m in GDP and the equivalent of 350 full-time years of employment over the construction period.<\/p>\n
The Government found the project would deliver significant regional or national benefits, including increased competition in the grocery industry.<\/p>\n
The applicants have two years from October 14 to lodge their substantive fast-track application.<\/p>\n
Christchurch City Council\u2019s Waimairi ward councillor Sam MacDonald earlier welcomed the proposed development but said the impact of increased traffic on nearby residents would need to be considered.<\/p>\n
MacDonald said people wanted cost-of-living relief, so providing more competition in the grocery market could only be a \u201cgreat thing\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just have to manage the impacts locally.\u201d<\/p>\n
The council\u2019s head of planning and consents, Mark Stevenson, previously confirmed that the council had been invited to provide feedback on the referral application.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe council received a letter from the Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport dated 16 September 2026, inviting written comments on the referral application.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council staff provided written feedback on October 7.<\/p>\n
Costco sells bulk groceries and other goods at discounted wholesale prices.<\/p>\n
The company opened its first New Zealand store in Auckland in 2022, attracting large crowds on opening day.<\/p>\n
Another store is planned for South Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The decision means the project can proceed through the fast-track approvals process, although it has not yet received…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6449,132857,24573,138,4487,50545,10678,170,24572,1888,19134,266,305,296,111,139,69,2171,5204,29056,21694,2735,19554,102],"class_list":["post-631631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-accepted","tag-accepting","tag-approvals","tag-business","tag-christchurch","tag-christchurchs","tag-costco","tag-development","tag-fasttrack","tag-first","tag-forward","tag-government","tag-have","tag-into","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-plans","tag-process","tag-proposed","tag-step","tag-store","tag-taken","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}