Terrell breaks ground on Buc-ee's, plans for more development

TERRELL -- Buc-ee's is coming to Terrell.

Road crews have been paving the way by adding lanes to FM 148 and building a new exit ramp from Interstate 20. On Thursday city leaders broke ground at the 300-acre site where other projects are also in development. The Buc-ee's will be a 61,000-square foot travel center.

The city is providing all the infrastructure for the chain convenience store, which is known for its squeaky clean bathrooms and novelty food items like dozens of varieties of beef jerky. No public tax dollars are going toward the development. Terrell Mayor Hal Richards said the city is eager to capitalize on the store's presence.

A new Buc-ee's is coming to Terrell. Carla Wade reports.

"People in Texas that are in business know that Buc-ee's knows how to select a site," Richards said. "And if Buc-ee's selected that site, which is a very high traffic location, I think other businesses are seeing that now and I think it's just going to bring more."

This groundbreaking comes at the same time Terrell is in the middle of a downtown improvement plan and people are spending millions renovating their homes. Richards also said the new store and other projects will bring much-needed jobs to the city of approximately 16,000 people.

"The secret for us, and I think the secret for everybody, is that people want to live and work in the same place," he said. "People don't desire to commute. So I think it's great for us and a lot of cities to work on their employment. "

The new Buc-ee's is expected to open for business sometime in the summer of 2015.