Costco Wholesale Corp. has obtained building permits for its new $15.6 million retail warehouse, about three months after Spokane County said the permits were complete and ready for pickup.

Representatives of Costco and the project contractor, Spokane-based Lydig Construction Inc., decline to comment on the project.

The project site, at 12020 N. Newport Highway, is more than a mile north of the Spokane city limits and about 3 1/2 miles from the current north Spokane Costco store, at 7619 N. Division.

The new store will replace the north Spokane Costco outlet, meaning the county will benefit from one of the Spokane-area’s largest single generators of sales tax revenue that the city currently receives.

The north Spokane Costco property is on the market, listed with an asking price of $7 million, says Steve Ridenour, of Spokane-based commercial real estate brokerage NAI Black. That property includes 15 acres of land and the current 134,000-square-foot Costco structure.

Ridenour says the listing has received strong interest, although no buyer has been selected.

The original online listing information for the property says the sale would be “contingent on Costco construction and occupancy of (its) new facility, estimated fall of 2017.”

As of Nov. 2, no updated timeframe had been announced for completion of the project.

The new store isn’t yet listed under the Costco’s “New Locations Coming Soon” webpage, which shows five U.S. and one Canadian store are planned to open before year-end, with the closest of those to be in Central Point, Ore.

The planned retail warehouse will occupy 167,000 square feet of space, building permit application information shows. The project also will include a 10,400-square-foot fueling station and an 819-space parking lot.

Seattle-based MG2 Corp. is designing the project.

The new Costco site is on 20 acres of land, which is part of a mostly undeveloped 433-acre parcel owned by Foothill Ranch, Calif.-based Kaiser Aluminum Investments Co. The larger parcel is part of a tax-increment financing district, which is intended to attract further economic development.

Kaiser’s former Mead industrial plant closed in 2000.

As earlier reported in the Journal, retired Spokane lawyer Tom Cooney appealed Spokane County’s environmental review of the project, possibly holding up construction.

Cooney, a resident of the Camelot neighborhood near the planned Costco, claimed the county’s environmental findings didn’t focus on specific environmental conditions at the site.

Before the scheduled Aug. 30 hearing, Cooney and Costco reached a settlement of sorts.

Costco also operates stores at 6501 E. Sprague, in Spokane Valley, and at 355 E. Neider, in Coeur d’Alene.