Park City’s Lou Robelli to build what he calls the Wichita area’s nicest truck stop
Lou Robelli may be better known in some circles for the huge warehouses he builds in Park City, but his business is Air Capitol Delivery & Warehouse, and he’s now going to focus on the delivery side with some attention on truckers and the trucking industry.
“We are going to build the Air Capitol Travel Center,” he said. “It’s a truck stop. They call them travel centers now.”
The center will be on 25 of 76 total acres Robelli plans to develop at the northwest corner of 85th Street and I-135 in Park City.
It’ll be a travel center for truck drivers along with anyone else who would like to use it.
“There’s really not a good travel center in Kansas,” Robelli said. “I’ve wanted to build a truck stop for a long, long time.”
He has 135 semis on the road in 48 states.
“This is the reason I’ve been wanting to do this,” Robelli said. “There’s a shortage all over America.”
He said truckers by law have to rest for 10 hours between driving shifts.
The travel center will “have a nice clean place to go take a shower” along with a lounge area with TVs and computer hookups.
“So they don’t have to sit in their truck for 10 hours to rest.”
There will be space where 75 to 100 semis can park for the night, “which is huge.”
Robelli said he had hoped to build at 101st Street and I-135, but there wasn’t infrastructure already in place.
“This place is perfect,” he said of where he plans to build. “Everything’s there. It’s going to be really nice. First class.”
Robelli expects to start construction within 60 days and be open sometime next spring.
On the remaining acres he has at the intersection, Robelli plans a combination of businesses related to the travel center, such as a truck wash, a place to get an oil change and some retail.
“Might even be a hotel. You never know.”
He said the travel center will be the Wichita area’s No. 1 truck stop.
“I don’t have a problem saying that. That’s the truth.”
This story was originally published August 17, 2020 at 4:47 AM.