KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Kansas City area is officially getting its first Buc-ee’s. The Unified Government of Wyandotte County cleared the final hurdle in the process during a meeting Thursday night.
This marks the first Buc-ee’s store in the state of Kansas, which comes less than a year after the Texas-based travel center opened its first Missouri location in Springfield.
The super-sized travel center will be located at 601 Village West Parkway in Kansas City, Kansas, right next to Kansas Speedway, which currently owns the 25-acre plot of land.
However, the UG unanimously voted to rezone the land from an agricultural district to a commercial district and to adopt a resolution authorizing the UG to enter into a development agreement with Buc-ee’s. That vote allows Kansas Speedway to finally sell the land to Buc-ee’s.
The site is also not far from Hollywood Casino and the Legends Outlets.
Renderings previously shown to WDAF-TV reveal that the travel center will be 74,000 square feet, with 120 gas pumps, a store, and 12 electric vehicle charging stations. The Kansas location is expected to employ around 200 people with an average starting pay of $18 to $21/hour.
Benefits include health insurance, a 401K program, and three weeks’ vacation time each year, according to the company’s website.
On Monday, the Unified Government’s Economic Development and Finance Committee unanimously recommended the approval of a development agreement, which allowed them to fast-track the process and put it to a final vote Thursday.
A company representative expects more than four million people to visit the Kansas location annually, most of them from out-of-state. The project has a $95 million price tag, most of which will be privately funded.
However, Buc-ee’s is asking for public financing to reimburse nearly $13.5 million of that. That will be done through TIF (tax increment financing) and CID (community improvement district) financing.
According to public documents related to the project, the TIF would reimburse Buc-ee’s up to $3.3 million over 15 years, while the CID would generate up to $10 million over 20 years.
Monday’s meeting also revealed that proceeds from the tax incentives will be used to pay for infrastructure improvements in the area, including more than $6 million for road improvements on Village West Parkway, more than $4 million for electrical relocation, and more than $1.5 million for improvements to the I-70 interchange.
“If you want to be a store manager for Buc-ee’s, you can pretty much get paid pretty good money,” Travis Albena said.
“I think it will be good for the community,” Chayanne Gomez said.
Gomez, a KCK resident, says the city is already busy enough but believes a Buc-ee’s will be a good addition.
“The wardrobe, you have the food section, which that’s already huge itself, then you keep going down yonder, then there’s baskets, where you can buy pots and pans,” she shared. “I think it will be really good for the community.”
“Buc-ee’s Travel Center will be one of the largest stores that they complete, I think second to maybe their headquarters,” UG Economic Development Director Chelsey Chisholm said.
Buc-ee’s currently operates nearly 50 stores in eight states, with most of those in Texas and Alabama.
“Development includes relocation of Village West Parkway with new roundabout, improvements of I-70 interchange and retention ponds,” Chisholm said.
You can find out more about the project and the funding for it here.
Construction could begin in May. The project is expected to take two years.