MARION COUNTY, Fla. – Sorry, Florida – always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
After being married to the idea that the world’s largest Buc-ee’s was going to be built near Ocala, the company opened on Monday a 75,000 square foot travel center in Luling, Texas.
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“The new Buc-ee’s Luling is the largest Buc-ee’s location in the country, bringing the largest Buc-ee’s back where the legend began,” a news release from the company read in part.
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The new Marion County location that will be located near Interstate 75, north of Ocala, is scheduled to open in 2025. Early reports said it would feature an 80,000-square-foot travel center – making it the largest – but Stan Beard, Buc-ee’s director of real estate and development, said in a statement that it will come in at 74,000-square feet.
“Buc-ee’s is currently in the design and permitting phase for a 74,000 square foot-store in Ocala, FL, which is our largest store model outside the State of Texas. The new Buc-ee’s travel center in Marion County will be located at the soon to be constructed I-75 and NW 49th Street Interchange. FDOT, Marion County, and the Governor’s Office have all been outstanding partners in this project and we look forward to the highway construction beginning toward the end of this year or early 2025. Buc-ee’s will be following the FDOT schedule closely and we intend to open the store soon after the Interchange is completed. We are ecstatic to be on the west coast of Florida and are thankful to all those who have helped us get here.”
Buc-ee’s Director of Real Estate and Development Stan Beard
In another runner-up role, the car wash being built at the Daytona Beach Buc-ee’s will be 235 feet long, but the largest in the country goes to the Buc-ee’s in Katy, Texas, which opened in 2017. That car wash is 255 feet long.
Buc-ee’s now operates 49 stores across Texas and the South. There are currently two locations open in Florida, Daytona Beach and St. Augustine locations.
Two more planned sites will soon will soon double that number, the one planned for Marion County and another to be built along Interstate 95 near Fort Pierce.
“This felt like the right thing to do and the right place for this opportunity,” Buc-ee’s Co-Founder Arch “Beaver” Aplin III said in a release. “This was the first travel center we ever built, but we outgrew the store and needed to build a new one. There were a lot of cities up and down the interstate that were appealing to us to open one in their area, but we knew it needed to be in Luling.”
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