The retail giant Costco Wholesale Corporation is interested in replacing southwest Cary's MacGregor Village shopping center with one of its warehouse-style stores.

Town of Cary staff have confirmed that Costco submitted a "pre-application" to the town in September.

The early documents include a conceptual plan that calls for the demolition of all the 1980s-era mall's buildings except for its bank, according to Cary's staff and mayor.

If Costco followed through on its current plans, the membership-based store would build a 147,000-square-foot store and a gas station, Costco's second facility in Wake County, at the western corner of U.S. 64 and U.S. 1, near the MacGregor Downs subdivision.-

Staff writer Andrew Kenney