Memphis-area Buc-ee’s to cost $82 million. Here’s what we know about tax incentives, jobs, and wages

The project to bring Buc-ee’s to the area could have costs nearing nine figures.

The first Memphis-area Buc-ee’s has applied for a 20-year tax increment financing (TIF) district to help construction of the popular Texas gas station chain on 28 acres at I-40’s exit 28 by Gallaway, according to filings with Fayette County.

Buc-ee’s is scheduled to go before Fayette County’s Industrial Development Board on Monday, Aug. 12, to consider approval of the TIF. The project already went before the Fayette County Board of Commissioners in June, where it passed.

The filings from the Board of Commissioners provide details of the scale of the Buc-ee’s not previously known.

The Buc-ee’s travel center is set to cost $82 million to build. The company is seeking approval for up to 74,000 square feet, per a site plan included with the filing. The Sevierville, Tennessee, Buc-ee’s is also 74,000 feet and employs 350 with 120 gas pumps.

If the project is that size, it would be 1,593 square feet short of the company’s record size. However, the filings do not indicate the number of pumps that will be present, though the company’s locations are somewhat uniform and the pump count range from 80 to 120.

Buc-ee’s plans to create 244 jobs with an average wage of $45,000 with benefits, which is $13,000 higher than comparable positions in Fayette County, per the Buc-ee’s application. Buc-ee’s estimated a range of $17.50 to $38.00 per hour for its new Tennessee location.

Buc-ee’s projected economic impact

Buc-ee’s retained Jackson-based consultant firm Younger Associates to perform an economic impact study. The study estimated that 20 million gallons of gas is projected to sell at the Fayette County location annually. It also estimates that the area Buc-ee’s will be online by 2026.

And, the Fayette County Buc-ee’s is set to bring a sizable mixed-use development with it, adding a large stopping point to I-40 between Memphis and Jackson — as well as Stanton, Tennessee, where Ford Motor Co.’s massive BlueOval City campus is being built.

A $100 million mixed-use project, the Winstead Development, is proposed for next to Buc-ee’s that could include apartments, hotels, restaurants, and retail and is included in the requested TIF district.

Shawn Massey, partner with The Shopping Center Group, discussed the development with MBJ.

If constructed, that mixed-use project would be the largest such development on the path to BlueOval City. The site sits just outside Shelby County, near Helen of Troy’s Fayette facility.

Buc-ee’s and the mixed-use developers are “expected to construct public infrastructure … to facilitate the development,” per the TIF application. That infrastructure could include interchange reconstruction, roads, parking lots, and utility and water/sewer improvement, among others.

The requested TIF would offset some of those costs, which are estimated at $17 million for the project’s initial infrastructure-heavy phase.

At full operation, the Buc-ee’s and an adjacent mixed-use development are expected to have a $258 million annual economic impact, per the Younger Associates study. The Buc-ee’s accounts for $116 million and the mixed-use development an additional $141 million of that total.