ESCANABA — Kwik Trip is coming to Escanaba in 2025 after its site plan approval.

On Thursday night, the Escanaba Planning Commission unanimously approved a special land use permit and proposed site plan for Kwik Trip’s new location at 501 North Lincoln Road, in Escanaba.

Kwik Trip Development Manager Nate Byom says the company plans to break ground in June of 2025, with the goal of completing the project by late fall to early winter of 2025. The construction process is estimated to take 22 weeks to complete.

The company currently has 893 stores across the country.

Escanaba City Manager James McNeil spoke in favor of the proposed site plan during the public hearing portion of the meeting, saying Kwik Trip is a cultural fit for the city.

“Just wanted to say from a staff perspective, Kwik Trip has been one of the best companies to work with so far for us,” McNeil said.

Byom said the planned store for Escanaba is a newer design called Gen Three.

“It would be a newer version of what’s in Crivits (Wis.), slightly larger than that and a slightly larger version of any of them that are in Marinette. We have four current new build stores in Michigan that are all Gen Three; Ironwood, Bessemer, Iron Mountain, Kingsford. So, this would be a similar store to any of those,” Byom said.

The gas station and convenience store will have an attached two-bay carwash, a recycling shed, and ten gas pumps.

Byom estimates the building, including the car wash, to be approximately 13,200 square feet.

The company is also adding a sidewalk from U.S. 2 and 41 to the location to facilitate pedestrian traffic.

The store will be open 24 hours a day and sells various products, including fresh produce, fresh meat, bakery and dairy items, hot/cold food and beverages, alcohol, tobacco, ice, and propane.

Byom highlighted their dairy products, saying that Kwik Trip provides fresh products daily.

“Milk that came in this morning was processed today, and if the store was open, it would be on the shelves tomorrow,” he said.

In addition to a new convenience store for the community, Byom says the location will bring in more good jobs.

According to Kwik Trip’s application, the project is a multimillion-dollar investment in the city. It makes physical improvements to a vacant parcel and is expected to create 30 to 40 permanent jobs. The estimated payroll for Kwik Trip employees at the Escanaba location is approximately $600,000 annually. Byom estimated that 60 to 70 percent of the staff would be full-time while the remaining 30 to 40 percent would be part-time.

“Kwik Trip really values their employees. One of the unique features is all employees get 40 percent of the profit as profit-sharing as a bonus check at the end of the year. We did completely confirm that we’re the only company in the U.S. that does that. So, if you’re willing to work hard, it’s a really good place to work,” Byom said.

He added that an established team leader from another location would get the store up and running.

“We’ll transfer in an existing store leader from another store, and bring part of a team in and then kind of grow the new team with local staff. So, it might not start out with the store leader being from Escanaba, but the ultimate goal is to have that person live here and be from the community,” Byom explained.

Following the commission’s decision to approve the land use application and site plan, Byom was excited to learn that the company would have a location in Escanaba.

“Kwik Trip is very happy with the approval of both our special land use permit and site plan approval. The city of Escanaba was excellent to work with, and we look forward to being a part of the community,” he said.