JOHNSTON, Iowa — Kum & Go LC is expanding the footprint of its future stores. The West Des Moines, Iowa-based convenience-store chain is building the first of its newest prototype—a 6,000-square-foot store with expanded prepared foods—in Johnston, Iowa, reported The Des Moines Register.

The new concept, called Kum & Go Marketplace, will include a patio and an expanded food preparation area, said the report.

“Future new builds will use this design, although stores currently under construction or beginning construction shortly will use the 5,000-square-foot prototype,” Kum & Go spokesperson Kristie Bell told CSP Daily News.

The company is still finalizing interior decisions “that will help us deliver more than customers expect,” she said.

The new store will double the size of the existing store, which will be razed prior to construction. Kum & Go has replaced other stores in the metro by building adjacent to existing locations and then tearing down the old stores. This lot doesn’t allow for that, Bell told the newspaper.

The company said it expects to open the new location by the end of the year.

“The store will not be in operation from approximately August until late in the year when we reopen,” Bell said. “There is another Kum & Go nearby … that we’re hoping customers will find as a convenient alternative.”

The company is combining two lots it owns to build the new store. It plans to flip the layout so that fuel pumps and the main entrance sit on the west side of the store.

Kum & Go has long planned to replace this store, and it went through the review process in 2013, David Wilwerding, Johnston’s community development director, told the paper.

Bell said Kum & Go plans all of its new stores to be built using the larger prototype.

“We have a few stores in the Des Moines metro that are slated for rebuilds with the Marketplace design in the next year, but we are still working on approvals and don’t have any specifics right now,” she said.

Kum & Go has more than 430 convenience stores in 11 states—Iowa, Arkansas, Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wyoming.

Click here to view the fullRegister report, including a rendering of the Kum & Go Marketplace design by BRR Architecture.