MOKENA, Ill. -- The brother of the former owner of the Gas City convenience-store chain is back in the business, having opened a new store with a new brand in the small town of Mokena, Ill., about 30 miles south of Chicago, according to a report in the Mokena Patch.
The Gas N Wash site includes a drive-thru Dunkin’ Donuts, a car wash, a pet wash, in addition to gasoline and the usual convenience-store offer.
The store is the latest venture by Len McEnery, whose family owned Gas City, where McEnery served as general manager of operations. That Chicago-area chain of convenience stores and travel centers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2010 and was sold piecemeal in May 2011 to several bidders, the largest share going to Speedway.
McEnery bought the Mokena property, originally intended for a new Gas City, from the bank and set about building Gas N Wash, according to the report.
McEnery said Mokena was a good site for the first of what he hopes becomes many Gas N Wash stations. "Mokena has always been very good to the businesses," he told the newspaper.
The Gas N Wash store opened with local fanfare Wednesday with a ribbon cutting attended by the mayor of Mokena, the president of the Mokena Chamber of Commerce and other area officials.
"We were thrilled when he came back and said, 'We're going to do it,'" village Economic and Community Development director Alan Zordan said at a ribbon-cutting.
The village approved a special use permit for the combination gas station and car wash as a Gas City back in 2006, Zordan said. The economy delayed the project, then the bankruptcy killed it, or so the village thought.
Construction started in November, and the gas station was up and running by February.
"We knew that this family, this company, were the right people to put a gas station on this lot," Mokena Mayor Joe Werner said, according to the report.
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