The rumors can finally rest: Asheville is getting a Costco.

City council signed off this month on a new Costco store planned for Enka Commerce Park, the long-watched development site on the city's west side.

For years, the warehouse giant topped nearly every wish list when residents were asked which retailer they wanted next.

Now the wait has an ending — just not a quick one.

Company officials say the Enka-area store could open its doors in spring of 2028.

That timeline may feel distant, but construction at this scale rarely moves faster.

Site work, grading, roads and the building itself all have to come together before the first membership card ever gets scanned.

The approval did not come without a fight worth having.

Council members and neighbors pressed hardest on two issues: traffic and trees.

Enka's corridors already groan at rush hour, and a destination retailer will add thousands of trips a week.

Officials point to planned road improvements, though residents say they will be watching to see whether those improvements keep pace with reality.

Tree preservation drew just as much passion.

Speakers urged the city to hold the developer to meaningful standards rather than token plantings around a parking lot.

It is a familiar Asheville tension: growth most people genuinely want, arriving with costs nobody wants to absorb.

Still, the economic case is hard to ignore.

A store of this size typically brings hundreds of jobs, steady sales tax revenue, and a reason for shoppers to keep their dollars in Buncombe County instead of driving them elsewhere.

For Enka-Candler, the signal matters as much as the store.

The west side has been transforming for years, and national retailers placing long-term bets tend to accelerate everything around them — restaurants, services, housing conversations included.

That acceleration is exactly what worries some longtime residents, who moved west precisely to escape the bustle.

The next milestones to watch are permits and groundbreaking.

Projects like this one tend to go quiet for months while engineering happens, then erupt into visible activity all at once.

If the spring 2028 target holds, Asheville shoppers have roughly two and a half years to debate the real question: how early is too early to line up for the grand opening?

There is also the quieter question of what a warehouse club does to the small shops that give this city its character.

Local retailers have survived plenty of national arrivals before, usually by doing what big boxes cannot: knowing your name, your dog, and your usual order.

The healthiest version of this story is one where both can be true at once.

We will keep following the project as it moves — the promises made on traffic and trees deserve a long memory.

Consider this your spotlight on it.