Continuing a growth strategy that is taking it into diverse locales across the West, the Buc-ee’s travel store and gas station chain has announced plans to build a new location in central Colorado.
The outlet will go up off Interstate 25 and County Line Road in El Paso County, and will see the construction of a 74,000-square-foot store with upwards of 120 fuel pumps.
The store will mark the Lake Jackson, Texas-based Buc-ee’s second entry into Colorado, with a first location being opened in early 2024 in the city of Johnstown, just to the north of Denver.
Founded in 1982, Buc-ee’s growth for decades was centered in Texas, but in recent years has begun to spread to Arizona, as well as throughout the South. Company plans indicate additional sites going up in Idaho, Nebraska, and Utah.
The plans for the new El Paso County location have now been submitted to the El Paso County Planning Development department.
An announcement posted on the official El Paso County website notes that “staff will review the proposal for compliance with applicable technical requirements.”
If the proposal satisfies those requirements, “it will be approved administratively,” says the website, adding: “the site development plan does not return to the Board of County Commissioners for approval.”
Buc-ee’s locations are particularly known for their size, measuring anywhere from 52,000 to more than 80,000 square feet, and housing a wide variety of retail and restaurant offerings.
Because of this, proposed Buc-ee’s locations often spark spirited debates from area neighbors, with project approvals usually taking months to become reality.
Beside the development debates, Buc-ee’s, notes the Miami Herald, has in recent years “become a subculture rocketing into the mainstream,” with its locations seeming to have a kind of “gravitational pull, steering cars off the interstate and into its embrace.”
The company’s annual revenues are thought to be as high as $5 billion.
October 19, 2026
By Garry Boulard
