Picture it: Your eyes heavy, your grip on the steering wheel loose as the miles on the interstate seem to stretch on forever. The coffee, hours old now, isn’t cutting it anymore. To complete this journey, you need a hero — and, just when all hope seems lost, that hero comes along.
Buc-ee the Beaver — proud, majestic, red-capped and buck-toothed — glimmers in the distance. He’s a beacon of reprieve, a sign that brisket sandwiches and branded key chains and anywhere from 80 to 120 gas pumps are within reach. The road’s friendliest rodent has aided many a traveler in their lowest moments with 50 mega-convenience store/rest stop/gas station locations across the southern U.S.
If development plans are any indication, Buc-ee’s could extend its paw print to Charlotte County.
Buc-ee’s, a convenience store and gas station giant whose popularity has spiked across the south, plans to bring a development application before Charlotte County’s Board of County Commissioners for a site within an approved 653-acre planned village community, according to Gulfshore Business. The location would join locations in Daytona Beach and St. Augustine as well as future stores planned for the state.
The development known as the Harborview project is located near Interstate 75 and Harborview Road in Punta Gorda, near the Deep Creek and Harbor Heights communities. It will bring single- and multi-family homes and commercial space — in which Buc-ee the Beaver may build his newest dam — when completed.
Charlotte County isn’t the only Florida destination anticipating an uptick in traffic and mass shipments of beaver-themed merchandise. Plans for Ocala and Ft. Pierce locations are advancing, and Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a potential development near Tallahassee that would “revolutionize driving on I-10.”
That announcement came during a press conference advertising a substantial expansion project of I-75, which will see the addition of axillary lanes from Ocala to Wildwood. DeSantis praised Buc-ee’s extensive offerings at the conference, highlighting the brand’s signature barbecue, baked goods and other food options.
“It’s like the Shangri-La of service stations,” DeSantis said at the press conference in Ocala. “Once people do the Buc-ee’s, it’s kind of something that they always want to do.”
Buc-ee’s has yet to submit a formal application to Charlotte County. Buc-ee the Beaver did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Contact Herald-Tribune Reporter Heather Bushman at hbushman@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @hmb_1013.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Charlotte County could see Buc-ee’s gas station and convenience store