Buc-ee’s to open in New Kent by 2025

It’s official. Buc-ee’s, the Texas-size travel center chain, completed its purchase of property in New Kent County and will open its first Virginia location in the next two years, with three more slated across the state, S.L. Nusbaum Realty Co. said in a news release.

A groundbreaking date for the New Kent site has not been set because the company is finalizing its building plans, said Nathan Shor, a senior vice president with S.L. Nusbaum Realty and exclusive tenant representative for Buc-ee’s in Virginia. Shor, who represented the seller in the transaction, would not say where Buc-ee’s is planning to locate its additional locations in the commonwealth.

Buc-ee’s New Kent LLC purchased 27.686 acres located at Exit 211 off Interstate 64 from Kent Farms Holdings Company, LLC for $6,506,210. The property will be constructed as a Buc-ee’s Super Center and include more than 75,000 square feet of retail space, 120 fueling positions, multiple electric vehicle chargers and parking for more than 650 vehicles, including bus and RV parking.

New Kent County’s Economic Development Department announced in March on its Facebook page that Buc-ee’s, the Texas-based retailer that bills itself as having the cleanest restrooms in America and the “friendliest beaver” mascot, had filed a conditional use permit with the county Planning and Zoning Department, generating hundreds of comments and thousands of shares.

At more than 75,000 square feet, the new Buc-ee’s location will be among the company’s largest. While the Buc-ee’s website says that its New Braunfels, Texas, location is the largest convenience store in the world at 66,335 square feet, that site is being dethroned by a 74,000-square-foot Buc-ee’s under construction in Sevierville, Tennessee, according to CBS affiliate television station WVLT. It appears the New Kent location could top the Tennessee Buc-ee’s.

The Buc-ee’s chain has opened more than 25 locations throughout the South in the past two decades.