First of two mega-travel centers opens on Bluff Road at I-77

Love’s Travel Stop – one of two national truck stop chains to locate at the intersection of Bluff Road and I-77 – opened for business Thursday.

Between the travel stop, convenience store, two restaurants and a tire care center, Love’s employs about 100 workers.

About 40 of the Love’s jobs are connected to the travel center or Chester’s Chicken restaurant, which Love’s owns, and the rest from a McDonald’s franchisee on the property, according to Love’s spokeswoman Kealey Dorian.

“The majority of our positions are full-time,” she said, adding that the McDonald’s jobs are a combination of part-time and full-time positions.

The center has overnight parking for 107 trucks.

Petro mega-center is scheduled to open in March and the Ohio-based company will employ about 200 people. The center will include a convenience store, Quaker Steak and Lube restaurant, a Starbucks, an 8,700-square-foot gaming center and even a 16-lane bowling alley, spokeswoman Stephanie Korsmacher said.

“This is a big deal site for us,” she said.

The center has overnight parking for 134 trucks.

The Love’s center was built on 20 acres of land on Bluff Road bordered by the stretch of South Beltline Boulevard that leads to Heathwood Hall Espicopal School, commonly known as Heathwood Road.

The Petro center is being built on about 25 acres on the east side of Bluff Road across from the present Burger King and Shell station. That center will be part of the city of Columbia.

Love’s location is in the city of Cayce, which annexed a 3,000-acre tract formerly known as the Green Diamond property about a decade ago during efforts to build a huge “city within a city” development there.

The centers are located about 1.5 miles from the Congaree River.

When announced this spring, some neighbors and others, including Heathwood Hall officials, expressed concern about the impact on traffic on Heathwood Road and nearby wetlands. The concerns centered mostly with the Love’s center.

However, Love’s agreed to a mitigation plan for the wetlands, the construction of a separate turning lane and the addition of several entry points on Bluff Road rather than Heathwood Road.

This story was originally published December 16, 2016 at 12:53 PM with the headline "First of two mega-travel centers opens on Bluff Road at I-77."