Spring makes everything looks so green outside these days. That’s especially true for Davenport. It has nothing to do with gardening.

But, Davenport is growing and Davenport is winning.

There’s no better example than the city’s announcement that Costco plans to open a store in the Quad Cities.

It’s expected to bring up to 200 jobs when the doors open on 53rd Street west of Elmore Avenue on a 17-acre property. That brings cheers to people who have wanted a Costco in the Quad Cities for years.

The city promises to do some work to address the traffic concerns that are almost certain to arise in this already congested section of the Davenport.

Another big win came early this year when Sterilite announced plans to build a manufacturing and distribution center. That facility will go on 160 acres near the new Kraft – Heinz plant at the Eastern Iowa Industrial Center. Job applications are already being accepted for the roughly 500 positions available there.

Most recently, Davenport got bailed out by Keokuk. That city agreed to take the old Rhythm City Casino barge away from Davenport’s riverfront. It will give the city the clear view of the water to utilize the waterfront for some kind of development.

What that will be remains unclear, but the city can now work with the blank canvas it’s been waiting for.

These are all pretty big wins for Davenport.

That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of other challenges the city has to confront and solve. But, 2017 has been pretty good to the biggest of the Quad Cities so far.

That certainly gives Davenport Mayor Frank Klipsch a reason to smile.He discussed his city’s economic progress during an appearance on 4 the Record.

Costco was one of those long coveted projects for the Quad Cities. Conversations with 4 the Record before it happened suggested that if the company ever came here that Bettendorf would be the place. Davenport landed it instead.

“Davenport is a large part of the Quad Cities, the largest city, and Costco does a lot of their homework and knows where the best places to go for those type of operations,” said Davenport Mayor Frank Klipsch. “The location they’ve picked is phenomenal and we’re excited it’s in Davenport. And, that’s one of the great things is that in Iowa, all the retail sales tax goes in to one fund and it’s all shared so we’re delighted that all the activities come to the Quad Cities, especially in to the Scott County area. They haven’t asked for any incentives. They just know this is a good market. This is a good place to be and they’ve decided to come to Davenport and we’re going to work with them obviously to make that happen and listen to the neighbors around the area and make sure that the traffic issues are minimized so that the people who want to get in and out of that great new store will be able to do that.”

There isn’t much city council has to do in terms of approval. The main thing is a zoning request. Klipsch confirmed that Costco submitted its zoning request, but there’s no indication when it plans to open.

“I think that they have their own plan,” Klipsch said. “There’s not a specific one. It could be, you know, within the next year. It’d be great if it was the end of the year, but they’ll put their schedule together. Once they get all the details worked out. there’s a lot of people anxious that are going other places to get to a Costco. And for all the things we’ve been able to do, this seems to get the most excitement from the most number of people.”

“I don’t think the zoning problems don’t look to be anything of issue. There’s so much commercial around there. That’s a precedent. It’s already been established. We were very excited to hear that Costco was very concerned with how they fit in to a neighborhood as well. so, they’re very sensitive to that and they understand the nature of bringing people into their stores, but also being responsive to the neighbors around them.”

One issue that gives a lot of people pause is the location. It will be tucked away in a congested area on 53rd Street. People thought that open area of development there would tend to be closer to Elmore or at least have access to Elmore.

Buying just a small strip of land could enable at least a driveway to have a second entrance from Elmore.

“That’s being discussed,” Klipsch said. “We have the opportunity of not only coming in off of 53rd, but also off Elmore. Those are also being explored as part of this process so there’s multiple ways of in and out of that site. We’re looking at all the options to make sure that we can have it as maximized, not only bringing it to the community, but for the most amount of people at the minimum amount of discomfort for all the people going around that commercial area.”

There will be some infrastructure work in conjunction with this. The city plans to widen 53rd Street west of the Costco location. It’s two lanes in each direction there. The work would add a fifth lane, essentially opening up a turning lane for both directions.

Klipsch says the money needed for it would be shared by the city and the state.

“A lot of it could come from the Iowa Department of Transportation and the state, but we’re still working on all those details at this point,” Klipsch said. “That’s something that’s been in the works for some time.”

Klipsch says getting started on that work depends on the bidding process to make it happen as quickly as possible.