By Richard Sullins | richard@rantnc.com
Work is under way on a second Sheetz location in Sanford and if there are no major holdups to the construction plans, the Tramway site could be opening by next spring.
The newer site, to be located at the intersection of U.S. 1 and Center Church Road, has taken longer to get started than the company’s other location on South Horner Boulevard for a variety of reasons.
A portion of the property where the store will go was outside the city limits and had to be annexed in order to receive city water and sewer services. The design has gone through a number of reviews by the joint city and county Technical Review Committee to make sure it complies with Sanford and Lee County long range planning requirements.
But the biggest holdup seems to have been the redesign of that intersection by the North Carolina Department of Transportation. DOT has been planning to redesign the current traffic flow intersection and replace it with a newer form that is being implemented across the state, known as “reduced conflict intersections.” A similar design can be seen today along the N.C. 55 Bypass in Holly Springs.
Public hearings were held on the redesign in 2021 and right-of-way was obtained in 2022 and 2023. The relocation of utilities is set to take place in 2024 before actual construction begins in 2025, with completion targeted for 2028. Negotiating with DOT on where the property’s connections with the new roadways was an item the developer took extra time with, making sure of where those connections would go before the new location of U.S. 1 is laid out.
The Tramway location is expected to be similar in size and configuration to the one on South Horner Boulevard but differs in at least one respect. The land for the site in Tramway is owned by a private developing firm, Arista Development, LLC, of Norwood, Massachusetts, who is set to deliver a “pad-ready” site to the Sheetz Corporation in February of 2024. The South Horner location is wholly owned by the Sheetz family corporation headquartered in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
“Pad-ready” means a site has been fully prepared and is ready for new construction. The Tramway location, which will offer made-to-order food, convenience items, and automotive fuels, is expected to be about 6,000 square feet in size, or roughly the same footprint as its sister location on Horner Boulevard.
The Sheetz Corporation operates about 700 of its convenience stores in six states: Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, and Maryland. Its first Michigan operation is expected to open in the Detroit area in 2025. The company has been opening stores, which now number in the mid 30s, westward across North Carolina since its first location in the Tar Heel state opened in Forsyth County’s Walkertown in 2004.
The company announced its latest expansion in early November of this year, with plans to eventually open five locations in the Asheville area. The first of those is set to open in 2024. Newer Sheetz locations have sometimes included amenities like electric vehicle charging ports and car washes.
According to Forbes magazine, Sheetz employs about 24,000 people and reported income of $11.7 billion in 2022. Its main competitor is Wawa, another Pennsylvania-based company providing similar service and that is significantly larger than Sheetz, but only recently opened its first North Carolina location in Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks.
Wawa announced plans in October to open about 80 stores in eastern North Carolina over the next ten years.
Finally, there are only 2 CircleK gas stations in tramway, maybe their gas will come down some, & there needs to be another grocery store, food lion is the only one & when the new apartments are finished , we’ll need another grocery store
Does anyone have a link to what the proposed site (and new intersection) might come to look like? Thanks.
a complete clutster fuck!
This is what they are going to do:
https://www.ncdot.gov/initiatives-policies/Transportation/safety-mobility/reduced-conflict-intersections/Pages/default.aspx
Sure would have been nice to have turned 78 into Pendergrass 20 years ago but no one wanted to piss off any property owners.
Had that been done, Center Church could have been properly configured south of the cruddy little development that is at the corner now. but again, let’s not piss of any property owners.
The County has no tools to guide or control urban development – the City has the only stick – the water and the sewer. Fixing Tramway from Keller Andrews all the way to Chris Cole/Hickory House Road will be a problem that will play out for 30 years.
With the traffic of tramway school, food lion shopping center, the new apartments, and throwing in a new sheetz!!!! Traffic is already a nightmare! Who is responsible for this nightmare??? And making it worse!!
The people responsible are those who believe in the unbridled right to develop their land as they see fit. When the good of one person outweighs the good of the public – the public gets screwed. It’s the American Way.
In a few years after all this is built, they will start changing the road, you won’t be able to go across the hwy , will have to turn right, , then circle around somehow , then turn right to get on tramway Rd , the tramway school traffic will be the main problem to fix
Arista Development has a close relationship with Sheetz and develops many store sites with them. South Horner store is on leased property. The store, as are all Sheetz stores, are owned by Sheetz. The land, however, is not.
Well why would DOT think that the HWY 55 By past in Holly Springs is better. Anybody that travels the US 1 south in the afternoon knows traffic jam causes the US 1 to shut down to one lane. traffic backs up for miles .Lets just turn one Turtle Neck into a Rubber Neck.