Photo Provided Costco is coming to the old Washington Mall property.

In a “major announcement” during their real estate expo Wednesday, the Washington County commissioners revealed that the retail warehouse club will become the anchor tenant at the Washington Mall site once that property is demolished and prepared for development.

“Drum roll, please,” Commissioner Electra Janis said to the crowd gathered at Washington & Jefferson College’s Salvitti Family Gymnasium for the expo.

“This is the exciting one,” Commission Chairman Nick Sherman said after the two commissioners rattled off a laundry list of economic development in the county. “It was the best- kept secret. It was the worst-kept secret.”

Sherman said they have waited to make the announcement about Costco while final documents were signed to place the retail warehouse club store at the site of the mall. There is no immediate timeline on when construction will begin, but county officials have said they hope to begin demolishing the old mall soon.

“It’s been huge,” Sherman said about the decision for Costco to come to the site. “The mall has been dilapidated for 11 years.”

The two Republican commissioners highlighted the development during their “state of the county” discussion during the all-day expo that brought commercial and residential experts to W&J College to discuss how to make Washington County thrive.

South Strabane Township supervisors will consider an application from developer 79/70 Associates for a “retail warehouse club” at the current site of Washington Mall during a public hearing scheduled at 6 p.m. March 25. A Campers Inn RV center is already slated to be built on the property, while there are expected to be other retail shops built around the Costco store.

“Knocking down the mall, I think that’s getting more shares on Facebook than anything else we do,” Sherman said.

During an earlier session discussing economic development, Tony Rosenberger of Chapman Properties, which is spearheading the redevelopment project at the old mall, discussed the need for community buy-in when it comes to economic opportunities that come with reimagining places like Washington Mall.

“The lesson to the community is you have to invest,” Rosenberger said. “Without investment in infrastructure, you don’t have anything.”

Burns Scalo President Brian Walker, who was on the economic development panel with Rosenberger, said he has heard complaints from some in the community about the decision by the commissioners to use federal American Rescue Plan Act money to demolish the old Washington Mall. But he said that stimulus money funneled through the county’s blight mitigation fund is a perfect use for it since it will create new development in a place that would otherwise remain stagnant.

I know it’s been controversial (but) from an economic standpoint, numbers don’t lie,” Walker said. “That mall would keep sitting there until it caves in.”

The cost of the demolition is not known, although bids are expected to be requested shortly to perform the work soon.