Buc-ee's officially broke ground Monday, November 9, on its first Louisiana location, a 74,000-square-foot travel center at Louisiana Avenue and I-10 in Lafayette. The $82 million project is expected to create 150 jobs starting at $17 per hour, with roughly 120 gas pumps and nearly 700 parking spaces planned for the site. No opening date has been announced.
Buc-ee's Breaks Ground for First Louisiana Store in Lafayette
The groundbreaking ceremony, held at 11 a.m. at the future store site on the corner of Louisiana Avenue and I-10, marks the formal start of construction on a project local officials have anticipated for nearly two years. The Lafayette Economic Development Authority announced in December 2024 that Buc-ee's had picked Lafayette for the location and would spend $82 million on the project, as KLFY reported.
Company leadership framed the ceremony as the moment a long-discussed plan became concrete. "This I-10 Louisiana location is finally happening, and we could not be happier to be here in Lafayette," said Stan Beard, Buc-ee's Director of Real Estate and Development, in a release. Beard's statement positions the store within the chain's broader Gulf Coast footprint, adding that "from Texas to Florida, Buc-ee's is the perfect place to stop for clean restrooms and great BBQ, over and over again!"
For a community that has tracked the project since the development authority's 2024 announcement, the event changes the project's status from a planned investment to an active construction site. What it does not change is the timeline question: no opening date or construction schedule has been released by the company or local officials.
Project Scale: A New Landmark Travel Center
The planned store is large even by travel-center standards. At 74,000 square feet, it approaches the size of a typical grocery store rather than a conventional convenience store, and the fueling operation is scaled to match. Plans call for about 120 gas pumps and nearly 700 parking spaces, figures KLFY reported from the project announcement.
The scale matters practically for the site's location. Positioned directly on the I-10 corridor, the store is designed to capture interstate traffic as well as local drivers, and the combination of roughly 120 fueling positions and a large parking field is intended to keep both moving even during peak travel periods.
The site work also extends beyond the store itself. Approximately $12.5 million of the $82 million total is earmarked for public infrastructure, including improvements to Louisiana Avenue, according to KLFY's reporting on the development authority's announcement. That means a portion of the private investment doubles as upgrades to the surrounding road network.
