Denison travel center breaks ground after a year of COVID delays

DENISON, Texas (KXII) - Travel center in Denison broke ground on Wednesday after being pushed back a year due to COVID.

The center will include Texas Best Smokehouse, Texas Best BBQ, Fuzzy’s Taco Shop and an Einstein Bros Bagels. The shop will also have a full fishing and RV supply and pilot diesel fuel for truck fueling.

“I am feeling absolutely elated this is our twelve Texas Best Smokehouse location but I have no doubt that it’s going to be our best,” Vice President of Development at Victron Energy, Inc.. Mohamed Sharaf said.

Sharaf said the support of the community in Denison has been so inviting and all the sharing on Facebook has been incredible.

“Has been nothing short of you know spectacular so we couldn’t be more excited about it,” Sharaf said.

The travel center will be off of North State Highway 91 in Denison, and will include murals of the community and incorporate some of Denison High Schools bricks into the building.

“It’s going to be such a great addition to our community and to this high school,” Mayor of Denison Janet Gott said.

This project was pushed back due to COVID-19, but Sharaf said that wasn’t a bad thing as they were able to add to their original plan like an Einstein Bros Bagel.

“It did set us back but we know that ultimately it actually turned out to be for the best,” Sharaf said.

“This is a day that we’ve been looking forward to for a long time and when we get to to do things like this it um it feels like we are coming out of COVID and that’s something that we all need.” Gott said. “Our community needs to know that we are on the other side of COVID.”

This project cost $10 million and will be 15,500sqft.

The travel center is expected to open up beginning November 2021 before Thanksgiving travel begins.

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