Mebane approves big plan for shops, restaurants and apartments near future Buc-ee’s

A new neighborhood less than a mile from the future Buc-ee’s travel center will give people more options for living, shopping and grabbing a bite to eat in Mebane.

The Mebane City Council voted 4-1 Monday to approve rezoning 83 acres on Trollingwood-Hawfields Road for a massive retail and residential project.

Nearly every speaker at the three-hour public hearing urged the board to reject the plans until Greensboro-based developer Koury Corp. addresses concerns about noise and lights, public safety, low-paying jobs and traffic.

Mebane resident Frank Robinson said his family spent 20 minutes getting into a Buc-ee’s travel center after exiting the highway in South Carolina. The Mebane Buc-ee’s combined with the Koury project may create “unprecedented” challenges, he said.

“I think Mebane is at an inflection point where we’re starting to lose that small-town feel,” Robinson said. “I think we are dealing with some of the over-development, the explosion of bogged-down traffic that will occur with this development on one end and Buc-ee’s, which I wasn’t too crazy about, on the other.”

The Koury development will add 299,565 square feet of retail and restaurant space, plus four standalone outparcel sites, to 30 acres. The remaining land will be built in phases, adding 645 apartments, 38 townhomes, and future office and medical buildings.

Amenities will include just over two acres of public and private open space, two clubhouses, two pools, a fitness center, yoga studio and dog park.

Industrial vs. commercial decision

The site is less than a mile from North Carolina’s first Buc-ee’s travel center and next to Bojangles and a Duke Health Mebane Campus under construction. Specific shopping center tenants, including a large anchor store, have not been announced.

Koury officials did not mention Buc-ee’s when asked why they chose the Mebane site. The land was initially identified for an industrial project, but Koury saw its potential, attorney Mike Fox said.

Mebane is a desirable place, even though retail and office construction isn’t favored right now, added Mike Longmore, Koury’s senior vice president for commercial real estate. Roughly a dozen potential tenants have expressed interested in the outparcel sites, he said, and another dozen are considering restaurant spaces.

“There really hasn’t been any growth in retail for about 20 years,” Longmore said. “You see single-boxes grocery stores, some small shops, but not a whole lot of development, and there’s really not any vacancy … so there’s a desire for them to open additional stores, and this is the perfect mix, with the next-door neighborhoods, the mixed use, and the ability to get to and from the interstate.”

Council member Sean Ewing, who voted against the rezoning, reminded the council about public concerns and the increased burden that the project will put on police and fire services.

“Yes, there will be taxes. Yes, there will be income. Is that how we want to grow as a city? Or do you want to consider industrial moving forward, where there’s bigger buffers and better-paying jobs — things we need to consider as we grow as a city,” he said.

The Koury project may not be ideal, but “I certainly think it’s a whole lot better than the alternative,” Mebane Mayor Ed Hooks said.

“Developers are buying land up … to put industrial parks everywhere,” said Hooks, who as mayor does not vote on developments. “All down Buckhorn, all down West Ten, and if I lived in Copperstone (adjacent to the site), I would much rather have a shopping center, a food store, restaurants, than any industrial building whatsoever, with 24-hour trucks coming in, distribution centers.”

Expected changes to Mebane, roads

▪ The Buc-ee’s travel center could open by 2027. It will be one of the nation’s biggest at 74,000 square feet and 120 gas pumping stations. That’s slightly larger than the nearby Tanger Outlets mall, but less than half the size of Mebane’s Walmart. Buc-ee’s affiliate CSMS Management LLC paid $12.8 million for the land in October 2023.

▪ A highway billboard with an upside-down Buc-ee’s logo is the only visible change so far. For now, Triangle area fans can get their fill of Buc-ee’s Beaver nuggets and Texas brisket off Interstate 95 in Florence, South Carolina, or starting next summer in Mount Crawford, Virginia.

▪ Buc-ee’s and the Koury projects will require major roadwork. Traffic studies showed 7,600 daily trips on Trollingwood-Hawfields Road in 2023, with the Koury project adding another 1,907 trips during peak morning hours and 2,815 trips at peak evening hours. Buc-ee’s traffic studies showed nearly 2,300 more trips at peak Saturday hours, and 1,000 to 1,500 trips during peak weekday hours.

▪ Buc-ee’s will help pay for road improvements, which must be completed before the travel center opens. N.C. Department of Transportation officials have estimated the work, which includes adding lanes and replacing a two-lane bridge over I-40/85 with a diverging diamond interchange, could cost nearly $33 million.

▪ A diverging diamond interchange is similar to the N.C. 119 interchange, where travel lanes weave back and forth through a series of traffic lights to eliminate most left turns and keep traffic flowing.

▪ The Koury project would also add more travel lanes to Trollingwood-Hawfields Road, more interstate on- and off-ramp lanes, and pedestrian crosswalks and signals. Koury would also build a new wastewater pump station to expand the city’s utility capacity.

▪ A “conservative” retail sales tax estimate for Mebane is roughly $126,000 a year in revenue, with additional revenue benefiting surrounding towns and Alamance and Orange counties, project attorney Nathan Duggins said.

▪ The full buildout could be worth $255 million, generating roughly $943,000 in annual property tax revenue for Mebane and almost $2.1 million for Alamance County, he added.

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