by Kurt Johnson

 The good news keeps getting better at Aurora’s Interstate 80 interchange, where Love’s Travel Stops has announced plans to expand its six-year-old-facility.

Opened initially in 2003 as the anchor of the 40-acre Woodard Subdivision, the Love’s travel center has performed at or above the company’s expectations, prompting a recent decision to add a small tire facility on site.

Love’s communications director Jenny Love Meyer explained that 30 locations around the country have or will soon be adding the tire care facilities.

"This is a fairly new venture for our company," she explained. "It is an adjacent business to ours, where truck drivers who are either on the highway and have a flat tire or need replacement tires will be able to have that done right there at our location."

Construction is well under way on a 1,200 sq. ft. two-bay facility on the northwest corner of Love’s 10-acre property. If all goes as planned, the facility will open in October.

"We felt this was a needed service and it fit in with our model, which is to provide basic service people need and get them on the road quickly," Love Meyer said.

The Aurora site will be open 24/7 with a staff of six full-time employees.

The door is also open to future Love’s expansion as the company recently bought five additional acres in the Woodard Subdivision, extending north and west along the interstate.

"There are no firm plans at this point for that additional property, but our intent was really just to have it," Love Meyer explained.

 

Community partner

AACD executive director Christian Evans noted that Love’s has been an exemplary partner in the I-80 development effort since day one.

"Between the addition of FedEx and the new Madison Avenue project, we couldn’t be happier with how they’ve worked with us," he said. "Love’s has been an excellent, flexible partner in our I-80 corridor."

Though the FedEx relay hub venture next door actually had no formal involvement with the Oklahoma-based company, Evans said Love’s was a factor in the decision.

"FedEx specifically said that Love’s was a major reason they chose our location for the relay site," he said. "They see having them next door as a real asset."

The benefits flow both ways as Con-Way Freight, for example, buys approximately 12,300 gallons of fuel each month on contract from Love’s.

The upscale travel center, complete with showers, an Arby’s restaurant and one of the company’s more modern designs, has been a constant hub of activity since opening in 2003. The business employs 40 people between the restaurant and travel center, but perhaps just as significantly helped pave the way for future growth. The company helped fund infrastructure expansion along Highway 14 out to the intersection, which made it faster and easier for other businesses to follow suit.

Based in Oklahoma City, Love’s was founded in 1964 by Tom Love, who opened his first filling station in Watonga, Okla. The company had 140 locations when they opened the Aurora site, but has since grown to 222 nationwide, including a second location in Nebraska now under construction at North Platte.

Expansion plans have slowed some in light of the economy, Love Meyer said, though a handful of new stores are on track to open before the end of the year.

"Certainly the outlook has changed a little bit, but we are still happy with where we are as far as our competitive position and just how we’re doing financially," she said.