Dive Brief:
- RaceTrac received approval for rezoning of a 7-acre property in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, on Jan. 8, according to a report from the Rocky Mountain Telegram.
- The location, near the corner of Wesleyan Boulevard and Thomas Betts Parkway, would be RaceTrac’s first store in North Carolina.
- RaceTrac has been making pushes into multiple new states recently, including Indiana and South Carolina, where it opened its first stores near the end of 2023.
Dive Insight:
The store should cost between $8 million and $11 million and is expected to employ between 10 and 15 people once built, said William McKinney, a lawyer with Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, speaking for RaceTrac.
While the requested rezoning of the undeveloped land to commercial services from heavy industrial was approved, multiple people raised questions about safety at that intersection because of a history of accidents. A traffic study is currently underway, and an official site plan will return to the planning board for approval at a later date.
RaceTrac has made a number of changes recently, in addition to its heightened focus on opening stores in new areas.
The company named Natalie Morhous as its newest CEO, effective Jan. 2. This came after a busy latter half of 2023 where the company bought Gulf Oil — its largest acquisition to date — added its first EV chargers and began the process of creating a “state-of-the-art” store with a research and development area, a chef’s kitchen and more.
Atlanta-based RaceTrac operates more than 570 convenience stores across Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Tennessee.
