Work is on schedule for Colorado’s first Buc-ee’s to open early next year.

The Texas-based company, known for its mega convenience stores, gas stations and red-capped beaver mascot, is building a store in Johnstown. The store will be the company’s first planned outside the South and the farthest west.

And at 74,000 square feet, the Johnstown store will be one of the biggest Buc-ee’s. There will be 120 gas pumps.

“We’re scheduled to open the store in March. As we get closer to March, we’ll announce the official day,” Jeff Nadalo, Buc-ee’s general counsel, said Thursday.

The building at the southwest corner of Interstate 25 and Colorado 60 is taking shape, clearly recognizable as a Buc-ee’s. The store will be the same size as one in Sevierville, Tenn., currently the largest Buc-ee’s, Nadalo said.

A new store under construction in Luling, Texas, will be slightly bigger at 75,000 square feet. Luling was the site of the first Buc-ee’s. There are now more than 40 stores.

Nadalo said hiring has started for the Johnstown store. The company plans to hire about 400 people for jobs including grocery and warehouse stockers; deli workers; cashiers; food and merchandise associates; managers; and janitors and maintenance attendants.

The pay is in the $18-$22 range, Nadalo said. Employees get three weeks paid time off, medical and dental benefits and a 6% matching 401(k) contribution after one year on the job, he said.

Nadalo said Buc-ee’s locates its stores in areas where there are families and people who are on vacation and where there’s a pool of employees to pull from. Northern Colorado is one of the state’s fastest-growing regions.