Hundreds of Apartments Are Being Built on Top of a Costco

A first-of-its-kind Costco with 800 apartment units above it is coming to Baldwin Hills, a neighborhood in South Los Angeles that Census Reporter finds has a poverty rate 25% higher than the national average.

The complex includes 184 apartments for low-income households, with the rest of the units offered as a mix of unsubsidized, affordable, and workforce housing. It will also have a rooftop pool and fitness center.

The Costco downstairs will have 185,000 square feet of space and two levels of underground parking. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the average size of a Costco in the U.S. is 146,000 square feet, placing this Costco above average.

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Real estate developer Thrive Living is preparing to start constructing the apartment-Costco property in early 2025, according to a report published earlier this month by the Wall Street Journal. When constructed, the complex will be the first residential development in the country with a Costco right downstairs.

^{Photo Credit: Thrive Living}

Thrive Living’s founder Ben Shaoul told the WSJ that Costco will pay rent for the space and the income will help Thrive Living rely less on government subsidies for the complex’s affordable housing units.

If the model works, Shaoul says he wants to use the same concepts to build “thousands and thousands of apartments every year, not hundreds.”

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The Costco apartment complex will cost $425 million to construct, with work expected to conclude in 2027.

According to a Thrive Living press release, constructing the complex will create thousands of jobs, and opening the Costco will create up to 400 new jobs.

The project is the first to receive approval under Assembly Bill 2011 or the Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act. The California law, which went into effect throughout the state on July 1, 2023, speeds up the approval process for projects that meet affordability and labor criteria.

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