Wawa announces multiple Fayetteville-area stores, including a new concept in Hope Mills

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct address of the planned Ramsey Street location.

Company leaders from the Philadelphia-based convenience store chain Wawa have outlined an extensive plan for expansion in North Carolina, with multiple stores in the Fayetteville area, including the company's first Travel Center Store.

During a stop in Fayetteville on Wednesday, Wawa officials said that the company plans to open 90 stores statewide over the next 10 years. Officials said the first stores in Fayetteville will open this year and another three stores will open in 2025. One of those three will be an expanded travel center. The goal is to open 15 locations in the Fayetteville area over the next five to eight years, according to a news release provided at the announcement held downtown at Segra Stadium.

In October, Wawa submitted site plans for a Wawa Travel Center to the county development review site for a store in Hope Mills at 5750 Corporation Drive. They also submitted plans in 2022 for a 6,049-square-foot store at 3613 Raeford Road in Fayetteville.

The Wawa Travel Center in Hope Mills will be the first of its kind and will include expanded restrooms, family restrooms, RV parking, expanded parking, an in-store seating area, high speed diesel, CAT weigh stations, free tractor-trailer parking and professional driver merchandise items, according to the release.

"North Carolina has the privilege of our first travel center," senior engineering manager for Wawa, Ted Lobst, said at the Fayetteville announcement.

He said that the Wawa Travel Center will open during the first half of next year. The first groundbreaking on a Fayetteville-area store will take place next month at Fayetteville Road and Jackson Court in Lumberton, Lobst said.

Officials also shared two other Cumberland County locations:

• 3900 Ramsey St., Fayetteville
• 6528 Rockfish Road, Fayetteville

Expansion into North Carolina

Wawa is a privately held, associate and family-owned business with more than 1,050 convenience retail stores operating across seven states and Washington D.C., according to the release. Wawa's have 24-hour service, free air stations for customers to fill up their tires, surcharge-free ATMs and an extensive food service selection. Patrons can order food and beverages from the tablet kiosks located inside the store to create and customize their orders.

In its 60th year, Wawa will open its first North Carolina location Thursday in Kill Devil Hills.

Wawa is expecting to create more than 3,000 new jobs as a result of its North Carolina expansion and plans to invest $7 million to open each store, employing an average of 140 contractors and local partners to build the establishment, with each store employing on average 35 associates, according to the release.

By the end of the expansion, Wawa estimates it will have invested $630 million into the North Carolina economy, according to Mary-Rose Hannum, the vice president of Food & Beverage for Wawa.

Wawa fans celebrate

Fayetteville resident Steven Tuohey attended the announcement Wednesday, saying he grew up in Folsom, Pennsylvania, across the street from Wawa's second store location where his mother, Mary Moore, was a manager.

"It was just a way of life," Tuohey said Wednesday at the event. "Every time you needed something, you went to Wawa. A soda, a candy after school, you went to Wawa and this was long before the ones with the gas stations and all that, it was just the beginnings of it, and we miss it a lot. We're so glad that they're coming here."

Another fan, Liberty Broxterman, who is originally from Pennsylvania and whose husband is stationed at Fort Liberty, said that Fayetteville doesn't understand how big of a deal Wawa coming to this area is.

"Whether you're a businessman or like me, a stay-at-home mom, it's open every day and it's accessible to everybody," she said.

Reporter Lizmary Evans covers growth and development for The Fayetteville Observer. You can reach her at LEvans@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Wawa announces multiple Fayetteville-area stores, including a new concept in Hope Mills