Costco a tourist destination?

As Costco plans to build a store in Oceanside on a former oil storage facility, the company continues to draw ire for seeking tax breaks as a tourist destination.

“Tourism is a misnomer,” said Joseph Kearney, the Executive Director of the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency. “The statue is not artfully crafted. What Costco is asserting that they will draw a significant number of visitors to their store from the outside region.”

The outside region, in this case, means shoppers from outside Nassau and Suffolk counties. Kearney also asserts that the IDA is doing their due diligence – and outside of a preliminary hearing on July 23 – no movement has been made on Costco.

The hearing, which lasted six minutes, was open to the public – although none of the public attended.