The first Wawa in North Carolina will open on the Outer Banks
Convenience and gas chain Wawa will break ground next month on its first North Carolina store — right across the street from the new Outer Banks Target.
A site plan submitted to the town of Kill Devil Hills for the new build at 1900 N. Croatan Highway calls for a 6,000-square-foot store, eight gas pumps, a canopy, 52 parking spaces and two underground tanks.
The store will be on the west side of U.S. 158 — the main thoroughfare through the beach towns of Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head — just south of Fifth Street and across the bypass from Target, which opened April 2. It will be the third convenience store on the same block, competing with Circle K and Speedway, which is in the process of rebranding as 7-Eleven.
It’s also one of two convenience-store favorites locating their first North Carolina stores in the Outer Banks region. On Monday, Royal Farms will open its first store in the state in Currituck County along the main route to the Outer Banks from the north.
Wawa has not announced an opening date for the Kill Devil Hills store, but company spokesperson Jennifer Wolf said executives will talk about construction updates and expansion plans across the state at the 10 a.m. groundbreaking on May 12.
The Pennsylvania-based chain operates 990 stores in six states and Washington, D.C. The closest store to the Outer Banks previously was in Chesapeake. The chain got its name from the town where it opened its first dairy operation — Wawa, Pennsylvania, in 1902. Wawa is a Native American word for Canada goose, according to the company’s website.
Kari Pugh, kari.pugh@virginiamedia.com
