New Sheetz Location Will Be Flying High to Meet Travelers' Needs

LANCASTER, Pa. — Sheetz Inc. may add plane travelers to its on-the-go customer base with a potential new convenience store located near Lancaster Airport, reported Lancaster Online.

The 6,000-square-foot store would be built on a three-acre site that Sheetz would lease from the airport and include indoor seating plus outdoor patio seating. 

"We feel it would be a great addition," said David Eberly, airport director.

The proposed store would be built at the corner of Airport Road and Lititz Pike, the southwest corner of the airport property. The Federal Aviation Administration has already granted preliminary approval to the store's proposed location at the side of a runway. The store's exterior lights would face away from the runway for safety.

Along with the usual parking spaces, the Sheetz store would be served by a new parking area for small, private airplanes located inside a security fence at the perimeter of the field. Single- or twin-engine planes could taxi there in and park. The airport would install a gate in the fence that would allow pilots and passengers to walk to and from the 24-hour Sheetz.

The store "would be like what you have on the turnpike," said Eberly. "If you're on the turnpike or in a plane, you have to do the same things."

Construction could begin as early as fall 2017, subject to numerous approvals, and building and equipping the store would take five months, said Mike LaCesa, Sheetz's director of real estate for the eastern region. The nearby homes, businesses and traffic combined with a lack of c-stores makes the airport a promising location.

"It seems like an ideal place to put a Sheetz," LaCesa said.

Sheetz operates more than 500 stores throughout Pennsylvania, West Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, Maryland, and Virginia.