Second truck stop proposed for I-64 interchange in NK

One truck stop already exists on Route 106 at the Interstate 64 Talleysville interchange in New Kent County. Now a North Carolina-based company is advancing plans to build a second.

Wilco Hess LLC, headquartered in Winston-Salem, N.C., approached the county on Feb. 19 with a conditional use permit (CUP) application to build an 8,000 square-foot convenience store/fast food restaurant along with a dozen fuel pumps for cars and eight more for heavy trucks on the southeast corner of the interchange.

That’s the same side of the road where Pilot operates a truck stop and convenience store. The Wilco Hess “travel plaza,” a company official said, is proposed for a 461-acre parcel that is zoned “economic opportunity” and located closer to the interchange.

Wilco Hess company president Steve Williams and Derrick Johnson with the Timmons Group engineering firm unveiled part of the company’s proposal on Feb. 19 before county Planning Commission members.

Williams said his family-owned business operates “travel plazas” at 390 locations in eight states, including one at the I-295/Route 460 interchange in Prince George County.

“We prefer to call them travel plazas and not truck stops because no truck work or maintenance takes place at the sites,” he told commission members.

And although no formal presentation has been made to planners, who made no comment on the proposal, the Wilco Hess plan has caught the attention of officials with the Burger King fast food franchise. Burger King plans to build a restaurant next door to Pilot, and company officials with the fast food giant appear adamantly opposed to what Wilco Hess envisions.

Steve Reichle, a Newport News-based attorney representing Burger King, told planners his client’s restaurant plans may not come to fruition.

“My client’s concern is about traffic,” he told the commission during the meeting’s public comment session. “There’s a significant amount of truck traffic backing up now. My client has concerns that if another large truck stop goes in there, people will not want to stop there to get something to eat.

“Another large truck stop would change the nature of development in the area,” he warned.

Reichle said that in his client’s conversations with county staff, indications were that Pilot planned to relocate its operation further east on I-64 to the Route 33/West Point interchange. After the meeting, county planning manager Kelli Le Duc said Pilot has not followed through with plans to relocate, but the company’s county conditional use permit expires next year and matters could change.

Reichle said Burger King probably would not have bought property on Route 106 if company officials had known Pilot had apparently abandoned plans to relocate.

“My client’s plan [to build a restaurant] is now on hold because there’s concern about the economics of it,” he told the commission.

Williams, meanwhile, countered Reichle’s truck traffic argument, saying a Wilco Hess station at the Route 106 location could solve the traffic problem since it would provide easier access for trucks entering and exiting the station and probably steal truck business from Pilot.

Williams said his company’s proposed project represents a $7-$8 million capital investment and would provide 65-75 jobs, mostly local hires, with an annual payroll approaching $1 million.

A formal presentation and public hearing on the Wilco Hess proposal is scheduled for the Planning Commission’s March 18 meeting.