Wally’s planning mega travel center off I-65 in Whitestown
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A travel center business based in suburban St. Louis has filed plans to build a massive $30 million store and gas station in Whitestown.
Wally’s, which bills itself as “Home of the Great American Road Trip,” is looking to construct a travel center aimed at commuters and travelers off Albert White Drive near Interstate 65.
Plans call for the business to feature a 45,000-square-foot store with a food court, gift shop, convenience store and restrooms; 80 gas pumps; and 15 to 20 electric vehicle charging stations. Wally’s would have both Tesla superchargers and non-Tesla chargers.
The 24-hour store would employ about 150 to 200 workers.
The Whitestown Town Council is expected to review plans for Wally’s at its meeting on July 12. The Fenton, Missouri-based company hopes to break ground after Labor Day and open in late 2024.
The Whitestown site would be home to Wally’s third and largest travel center.
“We’ve been actively looking for a long time, so it took quite a bit of time to find the right spot,” Wally’s CEO Michael Rubenstein told IBJ. “The more important things to us are not just traffic count, but access and visibility.”
The company previously opened a 30,000-square-foot travel center in 2020 off Interstate 55 in Pontiac, Illinois, and a 36,000-square-foot location in 2022 off Interstate 44 in Fenton, Missouri. The Pontiac and Fenton locations both have about 72 gas pumps.
Rubenstein said the inspiration for Wally’s came from road trips he took with his cousin Chad Wallis, the company’s chairman, when they were children growing up in rural Missouri. The company’s goal is to open eight to 10 Wally’s locations in the next four years as it continues to focus on the Midwest.
He added that Wally’s is designed as a car stop for commuters and travelers, rather than a place dedicated to the needs of semi drivers, and it offers a nostalgic roadside experience with modern amenities.
“The whole concept is sort of based on an ’80s family road trip, so it’s a lot of those throwback nostalgic feelings that you would get on a road trip as a kid,” Wally’s Chief Experience Officer Andy Strom said.
Inside a Wally’s store, customers will find a wide-open food court with a 42-foot vaulted ceiling where they can choose from barbecue sandwiches, brisket, popcorn, beef jerky, pizza, bakery items, drinks and more.
A St. Louis Post-Dispatch food critic described Wally’s in Fenton, Missouri, as “the hottest restaurant in St. Louis” that “also pumps gas, charges electric vehicles and has a camper parked in its retail shop.”
“The amount of people that come to our store that don’t get gas is extremely high, basically proving the point that we’ve created a food destination,” Rubenstein said.
In its retail shop, Wally’s sells camping gear, branded merchandise and items as random as ant farms.
“We really are destination stops,” Rubenstein said. “Our expectation is that we’ll capture a lot of travelers coming up and down this corridor and [be] kind of a one-stop shop for anything that someone on the road would need.”
Wally’s follows in the footsteps of Texas-based Buc-ee’s, which has 58 convenience store/gas station combos throughout the southern and southwestern United States.
Last year, Buc-ee’s opened a 74,000-square-foot mega store in Sevierville, Tennessee, and the company is planning its largest location—a 75,000-square-foot store in Luling, Texas.
In comparison to truck stops, TravelCenters of America locations range from 20,000 to 30,000 square feet, while Pilot Flying J locations average around 25,000 square feet and a new Love’s Truck Stop in Lafayette measures about 13,000 square feet.