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In its last fiscal year, Costco reported a 92-per-cent membership renewal rate across North America. In Ottawa and Gatineau, where Costco has four outlets and a Canadian headquarters that has more than doubled in size since 2001, the rate could be higher still.

“All I can tell you is that we have a very loyal following in Ottawa,” says Costco Wholesale Canada Ltd. spokesman Ron Damiani.

Retail analyst Barry Nabatian estimates that Costco’s stores in the capital earn more than $1,000 a square foot in annual sales, well above the $400 that is the industry target, and believes the busy east-end outlet brings in more than $1,200 a square foot.

“What other store do you know that has a traffic officer (in the parking lot)?” he asks.

Nabatian, director market research at Shore Tanner Associates, expects the new Ogilvie outlet will be up to 50-per-cent larger than the 100,000-square-foot Innes store. It will be the dominant tenant at a refurbished Shopper’s City East, one of Ottawa’s first suburban plazas when it opened in 1962. And while it won’t have the big-box neighbours of the Innes store, that is unlikely to discourage the typical customer who has already decided to visit Costco before setting out to shop, he says.

One obstacle to the relocation, however, could be the city’s desire for office and condo towers on the property in place of low-level retail development alongside the light rail line now being built.

Officials at Trinity Development Group, owner of the Shoppers East site, could not be reached to discuss the project.