Brian sent a message to W. Craig Jelinek – President and Chief Executive Officer of Costco Wholesale Corporation email address that said:
Dear Mr. Jelinek,
I am reaching out to you to consider a 2nd store in the St Petersburg, Florida area. Your Clearwater store is a 30-40 minute drive from downtown St Petersburg, a thriving, young and affluent market. Beyond downtown there is a large mid to upper income Gulf Coast residential market in St Petersburg as well as the adjacent Seminole and Largo markets, both of which I would believe are prime markets for Costco.
Please have your real estate people take a fresh look at this market. There is a shopping center at the corners of Park Boulevard and 113th Street in Seminole that was recently scraped and is being developed as a new large format store center. It could be an excellent, central location for a new Costco to serve the market area that your Clearwater store leaves out.
Your consideration would be gratefully appreciated. Also, it would be a pleasure to have you visit St Petersburg. You will be truly impressed with the vibrancy of this market. Dale Chihuly visited and was so impressed that he opened the Chihuly Collection. This is a hot market and we would greatly value having a 2nd Costco as a member of the greater community.
Brian
