Dive Brief:
- The Wills Group, owner of the Dash In convenience store chain, acquired the land for its first convenience store in North Carolina on Tuesday, according to Mecklenburg County property records.
- The Wills Group paid $2.5 million for an undeveloped property at the corner of N Tryon St. and E Mallard Church Road in Charlotte. The seller, rest estate firm Plaza Street Fund 126 LLC, originally acquired the property for $1.9 million back in 2021, county records show.
- Wills Group CEO Blackie Willis shared back in 2023 that Dash In — which operates 57 c-stores across Maryland, Delaware and Virginia — was targeting the Carolinas in its expansion plans.
Dive Insight:
Although the Wills Group officially acquired the property on March 4, the convenience retailer has been working on building plans and permitting since early October, according to records from the City of Charlotte.
According to the Wills Group’s official site plan, the finished site will feature a 5,600-square-foot Dash In convenience store surrounded by a fuel canopy and a Splash In car wash. Construction of the property will also include turn lanes added to Tryon Street and Mallard Church Road.
City records show that construction has not yet begun, but that the Wills Group has already completed zoning and planning reviews; erosion control, flood and waste tests; and several other preliminary processes. Once built, North Carolina’s first Dash In c-store will compete directly with 7-Eleven and Circle K, as both retailers have a store within 500 feet of the new Wills Group property.
Representatives from the Wills Group did not respond by press time to comment on the move into North Carolina.
When he became CEO of the Wills Group in late 2023, Blackie Wills said in an interview that the company was looking to triple its store count by 2030. The Carolinas would be a major part of that expansion, Wills said, due to the region’s proximity to Dash In’s current footprint as well as its growing population.
“We know that’s where the population is moving, because [the Carolinas] are tax friendly states, they’re business-friendly states with a lower cost of living,” Wills said back in 2023.
The Charlotte Business Journal first reported Dash In’s acquisition of its first site in North Carolina.
