OKLAHOMA CITY -- Chesapeake Energy Corp. is buying a Shell station near its headquarters in Oklahoma City for $3 million. The property, however, is estimated to be worth about $200,000 and sits on about one-third of an acre, said the Associated Press.
Chesapeake has been paying record-breaking prices for property in Oklahoma City and Nichols Hills around its headquarters in recent years, according to AP. Company chairman and CEO Aubrey McClendon—who also privately own the Pops 66 station and beverage store in Arcadia, Okla.—said the gas station is the "last piece" to a puzzle, [image-nocss] but declined to comment on what is planned for the property.
The 2,000 square-foot station, built in 1969, currently is a full-service facility and is open for business.
Chesapeake is buying the property from a family trust made up of the children and grandchildren of the late Jack Owens who bought the land in the 1940s. Owens planned but never built a third supermarket on the spot in the 1940s when Nichols Hills was in its early years, added a report by The Oklahoman.
The energy company's penchant for buying property to trade for other property is well known, the newspaper said.
Asked to elaborate on his plans for the site, McClendon said, "I am sorry. It's just not time yet. Too many moving pieces still."
Next door to the Shell is Nichols Hills Plaza, which Chesapeake bought for a then-record $27.5 million two years ago. Chesapeake also owns other commercial property nearby.
Chesapeake probably didn't buy the station to continue operating it as a station, the Oklahoman speculated. The Shell is still open, but for how long isn't clear. Operator Don Bolen has a lease, but he could not be reached for comment, the paper said.
As a gas station, the property probably would fetch $350,000 to $400,000, Kenneth Spencer of Spencer Real Estate, which brokers gasoline stations, convenience stores and truck stops across the state, told the paper.
Chesapeake is "definitely buying locations to add to its campus," Spencer added.
Last summer, McClendon opened Pops 66 on Route 66. It is first and foremost a purveyor of carbonated beverages of many brands. But it is also a gas station with a full convenience store and restaurant. The station has 12 dispensers, offering unbranded gasoline and diesel supplied by Star Fuels of Oklahoma LLC. And it offers hundreds of soda brands—including Pops' own Round Barn Root Beer.
"Pops 66 is not affiliated with Chesapeake Energy in any way, though. It's a private investment," marketing manager Jessica Ockershauser told CSP Daily News shortly after the facility opened. McClendon "has a lot of real estate in Oklahoma, and he has other private investments, but this is the first retail venture. He has owned the land on Route 66 in Arcadia for quite a while. There used to be a gas station there that closed down. He knew there was a demand and a need for a gas station. And he wanted to have a little fun with it. Since it's on Route 66, he wanted to do something a little bit more unique and special and make it more of a destination, and so he partnered with Rand Elliott, a local but nationally known architect. They brainstormed Pops."
At the time, there were no plans to expand. "It's a destination, and we don't want to turn a destination into a chain. We have out hands full with the one location," Ockershauser said.
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Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy is a major U.S. independent producer of natural gas. The company's operations are focused on exploratory and developmental drilling and corporate and property acquisitions in the Mid-Continent, Fort Worth Barnett Shale, Fayetteville Shale, Permian Basin, Delaware Basin, South Texas, Texas Gulf Coast, Ark-La-Tex and Appalachian Basin regions.
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