Wawa is getting into the truck-stop business.
The mid-Atlantic convenience store chain opened its first store with amenities for truckers near Fayetteville, North Carolina, and started construction on two additional truck stops in Ohio and Indiana.
The 8,239-square-foot store in Hope Mills opened last week on an 8.4-acre site directly off an Interstate 95 exit ramp, according to public records. The property includes a typical Wawa convenience store with gasoline pumps and ready-made food and beverages for sale inside.
It also comes with high-speed diesel fuel pumps for large trucks, CAT-branded certified truck scales and free parking for tractor-trailers, Brian Schaller, Wawa's president, said in a news release from the company.
Convenience stores are racing to grow real estate footprints across the United States and Canada by expanding into new states and designing larger buildings to accommodate a greater emphasis on food and beverage sales. Convenience stores of all sizes, from the largest chains like 7-Eleven and Murphy USA, to smaller, regionally focused operations like Worcester, Massachusetts-based Nouria and Powell, Tennessee-based Weigel's, are plotting expansion strategies.
Wawa has not disclosed the specific property locations of planned truck stops in Ohio and Indiana. The company opened its first store in Ohio in April, albeit without truck-stop amenities, at 7160-7198 Cincinnati-Dayton Road in Liberty Township.
Wawa plans to open 90 stores in North Carolina over the next decade, with its next location at the intersection of South 17th Street and Wellington Avenue in Wilmington. Wawa has not said how many North Carolina locations will come with truck stops.
A Wawa spokesperson declined to comment to CoStar News beyond the press release.
Wawa opened its first store in 1964 in Pennsylvania. It remained focused on the mid-Atlantic region for decades before expanding into Florida in the 2010s and later to other parts of the Southeast and Midwest.
For the record
Kimley-Horn provided engineering services to Wawa for the North Carolina location.