{"id":314650,"date":"2026-06-21T09:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T09:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/314650\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T09:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T09:18:11","slug":"it-would-do-very-well-desantis-agrees-buc-ees-should-open-new-spot-at-this-florida-junction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/314650\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It would do very well:\u2019 DeSantis agrees Buc-ee\u2019s should open new spot at this Florida junction"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 The cult-favorite convenience chain Buc-ee\u2019s is set to open several new locations in the Sunshine State<\/a> \u2014 but one location in particular may be a good fit for the company, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis.<\/p>\n

DeSantis took to X on Friday to respond to another user, who claimed that it would be \u201cPHENOMENAL\u201d to have a Buc-ee\u2019s at the exit of U.S.-1 in Florida City, just before a stretch of highway leading to the Florida Keys.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes and it would do very well,\u201d DeSantis wrote in response.<\/p>\n

DeSantis has been a longtime proponent of Buc-ee\u2019s in Florida, even promoting an upcoming location that\u2019s planned to open near Interstate 75 in Ocala.<\/p>\n

In a news conference<\/a> last year, he even joked that he approved an expansion project along that highway after learning that Buc-ee\u2019s would be opening there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Sign me up,\u2019\u201d he explained at the time.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: DeSantis holds 2024 news conference to discuss I-75 project]<\/p>\n

That said, DeSantis has also described Buc-ee\u2019s owner Arch Aplin III as a friend and political ally. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been supportive politically, and he\u2019s involved in Texas. And sometimes if you\u2019re involved on one side, the other side wants to attack you,” he said. \u201cSo I remember there was a couple years ago, there was an effort. These are probably paid left-wing groups. They wanted to boycott Buc-ee\u2019s because the owner had given to (Texas) Gov. Abbott. And I\u2019m like, \u2018Yeah, that boycott ain\u2019t going to work very well.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ocala location is slated to open in 2029. But it\u2019s not the only location that\u2019s planned for Florida.<\/p>\n

FT. PIERCE<\/p>\n

According to TCPalm<\/a>, another gas station is expected to open in Ft. Pierce sometime in 2027.<\/p>\n

Site plans unveiled last year<\/a> show that this store is set to open north of Fort Pierce, likely on the southeast corner of the I-95 Indrio Road interchange.<\/p>\n

Those plans also show that the site may feature up to 120 gas pumps and well over 700 parking spots.<\/p>\n

TALLAHASSEE<\/p>\n

During the same news conference where DeSantis discussed the I-75 project in Ocala, he also claimed that a new Buc-ee\u2019s is coming to the state capitol. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s no opening date yet for this site, but according to DeSantis, this Buc-ee\u2019s store is planned to be built off Interstate 10 near Tallahassee, which he said will \u201crevolutionize driving on I-10.\u201d<\/p>\n

Per the Tallahassee Democrat<\/a>, the Tallahassee store is slated to bring in around 200 new jobs, and the travel center itself could span 75,000 square feet, which would even overtake the gargantuan Ocala location.<\/p>\n

PORT CHARLOTTE<\/p>\n

Last year, News 6 also dug up property records showing that a rezoning project for a potential was approved along Harborview Road near Interstate 75, clearing the way for over 650 acres of development.<\/p>\n

North and east of the highway, the project is slated to bring in plenty of residential development, though a smaller parcel of land to the southwest of I-75 may potentially become home to a new Buc-ee\u2019s gas station, county records reveal.<\/p>\n

(Left) Master development plan for the West Village project; (Right) Charlotte County property map, with the area highlighted in yellow being where the proposed Buc-ee’s would go (Public Record)Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n

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Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 The cult-favorite convenience chain Buc-ee\u2019s is set to open several new locations in the Sunshine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1287,558,6919,28,30,29,575,8566,3833,373,2649,99,232,729],"class_list":["post-314650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-buc-ees","tag-business","tag-features","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-food","tag-i-75","tag-marion-county","tag-miami-dade-county","tag-ocala","tag-politics","tag-tallahassee","tag-traffic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}