U-Haul is looking to move in where Costco moved out, on Trinity Drive in Moncton.

The American moving and storage giant revealed plans to convert the former Costco location at 25 Trinity Drive into a U-Haul Storage Center.

An August 10 public notice released by the City of Moncton confirms plans by U-Haul to retrofit the former home of Costco at 25 Trinity Drive to accommodate a U-Haul location.

According to the notice, U-Haul intends to convert the building into a self-storage, truck and trailer-sharing, and retail store.

It’s unclear whether U-Haul intends to set up a third berth in the city or move one of its two existing businesses into Costco’s former home.

U-Haul’s two locations in the Hub City include U-Haul Moving and Storage of Moncton, on 1795 Main Street, and U-Haul Moving and Storage at Mapleton, at 1106 Mountain Road.

The City received an application from Amerco Real Estate Company, on behalf of Costco Wholesale Canada, to convert the vacant building near Wheeler Boulevard and Mapleton Road.

Huddle reached out to U-Haul, which declined an interview on the subject.

In an email response, U-Haul spokesperson Andrea Batchelor said “Our U-Haul Company of Atlantic Canada management team will be happy to address questions when we are further along in the process and have more information to offer,” offering no more specifics.

An email sent to Amerco Real Estate was not responded to before the publication of this piece.

The city’s public notice specifies that U-Haul needs to apply for a permit for a mini-storage warehouse in an area that is zoned for suburban commercial use, before it can proceed.

City staff told Huddle that the building at 25 Trinity Drive has been unoccupied since Costco left. Costco relocated from there in November 2018, reopening at 140 Granite Drive as the first anchor tenant of the Granite Centre, a retail plaza currently seeing aggressive commercial growth.

According to information from New Brunswick’s online property assessment tool, 25 Trinity Drive has a 2022 assessment value of $7,495,200.

Information from the assessment tool indicates the assessed value of the property has steadily declined over the last five years from a $9,400,000 assessment value in 2018 – the property’s oldest posted assessment value on the website.

To gauge the public response to U-Haul’s plan, the City has notified property owners within 60 meters of the area, looking for feedback.

The matter, which will address that feedback, will go before Moncton’s Planning Advisory Committee at its next meeting on Aug. 24.

Sam Macdonald is a reporter with Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.