Is Buc-ee’s a one-shot wonder for South Mississippi or will more businesses follow?
The rumble of progress is heard and felt as sleepy exit 24 of I-10 — with its two gas stations and a few small businesses — becomes a destination as home to one of the largest Buc-ee’s travel centers in the country.
Contractors and builders work inside and out on the 74,000-square-foot building and a canopy that spans a row of 120 fueling stations.
Billboards along I-10 alert travelers that Buc-ee’s will open soon. The company hasn’t narrowed the date beyond saying it will happen this spring.
The next signs to watch for are the beaver logos going up on the building and notices for the job fair Buc-ee’s schedules three months ahead of opening. The company plans to hire 200 or more people at wages starting at $18 an hour plus benefits for cashiers and stockers.
The exit 24 interchange and the bridge over I-10 were rebuilt in anticipation of the traffic volume that Buc-ee’s will generate. An estimated 5 million people are expected to come off the highway and into Buc-ee’s each year, said Bill Lavers, executive director of the Harrison County Development Commission.
County officials said all along the $15 million they invested for the new infrastructure is for Buc-ee’s — but also for development they believe will follow.
Along with the new Buc-ee’s, the intersection has three things that could spur development:
▪ There’s lots of room to build
▪ The land is for sale and ready to go with county water and sewer, thanks to Buc-ee’s
▪ Additional development has already started
More restaurants and mom-and-pops
A Subway and a Mexican restaurant no longer will be the only choices for residents in that area, said Dustin Gartman, who lives just up the road from Buc-ee’s..
His new Oak Square Shopping Center, across the street from Buc-ee’s, is almost complete and businesses are opening one by one.
Oak Square Liquor and Wine opened there at Christmas, with a wine tasting counter and a wine cellar making it more than a package store.
A coffee shop and a Chillville ice cream are two of the new tenants, along with a nail salon, tobacco shop and an urgent care.
Only a couple of tenants are still needed for full occupancy, he said.
“I was here first,” Gartman said, and he expects when Buc-ee’s opens it will draw customers to his shopping center.
“It will help us.” he said. “We’ll get some overflow traffic.”
In the parking lot of the new shopping center is a very large electric billboard sure to catch the eye of people coming and going at Buc-ee’s.
Right next to Oak Square, The Legend shopping center houses El Patron restaurant, which has seen a boom with all the construction workers, a generator business that also has benefited from Buc-ee’s, a shoe store, a construction office and other small businesses.
The owners started remodeling some of the spaces, ordered a new sign and plan to finish the exterior to look more like their new neighbor.
“I think it will make it all look good,” Gartman said.
Hints of what’s to come
Gartman said he had indications a couple of years ago that Exit 24 was about to grow.
“I figured out something was coming,” he said, “because I kept getting stupid offers on the front property.”
Oak Square is on the front three of 21 acres he owns there on Firetower Road by Buc-ee’s.
Phase 2 could be more stores and neighborhood businesses, Gartman said, or it could be something else.
“I’m going to wait and see,” he said.
Gartman said he expects more development to follow on the empty acres of land around Buc-ee’s. He didn’t divulge what might be coming, but said, “There’s some stuff in the works.”
“We’re anticipating that area to grow commercially,” said Harrison County Supervisor Marlin Ladner. “You can see it already.”
One of his early concerns was about the two gas stations already in that area, he said, but experts said the competition doesn’t really hurt those kinds of neighboring businesses.
Lots of room for big box
Buc-ee’s bought a 40-acre chunk of land carved out of the Menge Avenue Commercial Park on the north side of I-10 at exit 24.
Directly north of Buc-ee’s is a 140-acre swath of wooded land for sale, posted by Beau Box Commercial Real Estate for the property owners in Georgia.
“We have been marketing it for a few years,” said Beau Box, president and CEO of the company based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
They’ve been waiting for the opening of the bridge, he said, which took over a year. Now with Buc-ee’s nearly ready to open, he’s seeing some action on the listing.
“We have other retail that is interested in the 140 acres,” he said.
Because of Buc-ee’s, the property now has water and sewer available, he said, making it attractive to developers and ready to build.
With the improved roads and modern utilities, “The infrastructure alone is extremely valuable to the future of the county,” he said.
Will they build? Will they come?
In comparison, The Promenade in D’Iberville sits on 80 acres along I-10. But it’s a different business climate than it was when Target, Kohl’s and the other stores and restaurants opened at The Promenade in 2009.
“Retail’s not what it used to be because Amazon can just bring it to your door,” said Lavers.
Still Slidell, just over the border in Louisiana, has a population of only 24,000 residents, yet all kinds of retail businesses and restaurants South Mississippi doesn’t have, he said. It’s in large part because of its proximity to New Orleans.
While the area near the new Buc-ee’s is rural, one interstate exit away is Diamondhead and its population of about 9,000 residents.
Those people likely would rather drive eight miles to exit 24 than 29 miles to Slidell, Lavers said, but they aren’t going to do it if there aren’t more businesses to draw them east rather than west.
Population is a big factor in where new businesses will locate. Diamondhead and nearby Long Beach, Pass Christian and Bay St. Louis have a lot of affluent second home owners who would shop and dine at new businesses, “But those people don’t show up in local demographics,” he said.
‘That’s what Buc-ee’s does’
The overnight boom in development that’s happened near the Loxley, Alabama Buc-ee’s didn’t really happen that quickly, he said.
“They built the Beach Express 20 years ago,” he said, but a project that was supposed to come to the 4,000 acre industrial park neat I-10 never materialized.
Twenty years later, with the new Buc-ee’s and infrastructure in place, that area landed a huge steel mill and two large distribution centers, Lavers said. They came because the property was ready to build, he said.
“That’s what Buc-ee’s does,” Lavers said.
Martha Sanchez contributed to this report.
