Sheetz and Asheville Regional Airport partner; Sheetz will lease airport property for new convenience store and build big new airport parking lot
Also, the airport is looking at another busy year of passenger usage
This newsletter sponsored by Citizens Fuel Co., a family-owned Asheville company. This newsletter is also presented in partnership with Marilyn Ball, host of the iHeart Media radio show and podcast Speaking of Travel, broadcast each Saturday at 11 a.m. on 570AM WWNC radio and available for listening on worldwide podcast platforms.
The Asheville Regional Airport has been racing to meet the need for parking as its usage has exploded over the past several years. At its regular monthly meeting Friday (March 8), the Greater Asheville Regional Airport Authority members, in business-like fashion, approved a deal with the Pennsylvania-based convenience store company Sheetz to add another 250 surface parking spaces for airport users.
The airport officially opened its first parking deck, a 5-story structure in 2018. The garage’s 1,100 new public parking spaces filled almost immediately, all while airport usage continued to skyrocket. In the years since, airport officials have built new surface lots and created unpaved overflow lots that open at extremely busy periods.
(The airport recorded just over 1 million enplanements last year, a record high, and is estimating 1.2 million enplanements this year. Footnote: airport officials last year celebrated serving “2 million passengers” leaving Asheville or coming to Asheville. In so doing, they’re essentially doubling the number of enplanements, which is a closely watched metric.)
Enter Sheetz. In the lease agreement approved Friday, the Pennsylvania-based convenience store chain will build a new store on an airport surface parking lot right across N.C. Highway 280 from the airport terminal. Sheetz will replace the parking spaces lost to the convenience store and build an additional 250 spaces. For that, the airport has agreed to pay Sheetz $2,189,217.
Sheetz announced late last year that it was planning to open several new locations in Western North Carolina over the next five years. One location is planned for US-25/Asheville Highway, just off I-26 near Naples Road in Fletcher, according to a WLOS report last month. Another Sheetz is planned as part of a large new residential development off Smokey Park Highway in Candler (near the I-40 exit 44 interchange.)
Each Sheetz location will feature a “restaurant-style experience” with self-service kiosks, as well as indoor and outdoor seating, according to this November 2023 C-Store Dive report. Stores will also include several fueling positions and electric vehicle charging ports, drive-thrus, car washes and more. These locations will be open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Why is the airport leasing some of its property to Sheetz? Airport officials say the Sheetz lease agreement helps them diversify their business revenue. With a similar goal in mind, airport officials bought a nearby golf course a couple of years ago and are working with a company to build a new hotel there.
In this segment, Speaking of Travel host Marilyn Ball talks with airport spokeswoman Tina Kinsey about some of the ways airport officials are trying to help visitors find parking.
Here are a few more tidbits from the airport authority’s Friday (March 8) meeting:
This year is shaping up to be another busy one: The number of people getting on an airplane at the Asheville Regional Airport in January ticked up slightly compared to January 2023, while the number of airplane seats available at AVL increased by 20 percent. That’s “an incredible increase,” airport director Lew Bleiweis told authority members.
They’re hiring: As part of a discussion regarding the 2024-25 fiscal year’s budget, which the authority gave its preliminary approval to, Bleweis said his organization is looking to hire 14 new full-time employees.
Piano problems: For years, there’s been a piano in an airport waiting area for the general public. A handful of professional musicians schedule times to play, but lately there’s been a issue with some members of the public banging away on the piano without permission, causing disturbances. On Friday, the airport authority approved a new policy to clamp down on just who can tickle the ivory in the terminal.
For more information
Click here to read Hot Sheet’s February airport update, which includes information regarding airport parking, terminal construction and more.
Here’s a link to AVL Forward, the airport’s website tracking construction.
Thanks for reading,
-j