OMAHA, Neb. -- When it opened to national attention, the Terror-Free Oil gas station in southwest Omaha, Neb., was supposed to be the beginning of a movement to end American consumption of foreign oil. Backers of the station said they would sell only gasoline that did not originate in Middle Eastern countries. It didn't work, said The Omaha World-Herald.
The Terror-Free station lasted less than three years. It closed several months ago, said the report, and a bank foreclosed on the property and resold it. It appears no other Terror-Free Oil station has opened [image-nocss] elsewhere in the nation.
The new owner of the Omaha property, Khalil Eljamal, recently removed the gasoline dispensers and tanks in an effort to make it more attractive to prospective tenants, the report added.
Eljamal, who is originally from Lebanon, said that he sees no irony in the fact that someone from the Middle East now owns the site. It's just a business opportunity to him. "I'm a businessman, looking for a good deal," he told the newspaper. "It doesn't matter who had it before. That's the good thing about America."
Large blue, white and red "Terror-Free Oil" signs still stand above the concrete lot. So does a sign bearing the former business's logo, a likeness of the Twin Towers amid the numbers of the 9/11 flights. "Terror-Free Oil Initiative The First Step to Energy Independence," reads the logo. The letters are beginning to peel.
It is unclear why the station failed so soon after opening in February 2007 in a former Sinclair gas station. The people who ran it could not be reached for comment, said the report. But indications are that the reasons were more about business than politics. The largest clue might be found right next doora Quik Trip gas station and convenience store.
Also, insurance agent Don Kroupa, whose office is just south of the former Terror-Free Oil station, theorized that shoppers were turned off by the station's food and beverage offerings. "The gas was a couple cents cheaper, but the pop was old," Kroupa told the paper. "The products in there just weren't very good."
He said he thought the station had stopped accepting credit and debit cards before closing several months ago. He had to keep after them to mow their grass, a problem he has not had since Eljamal bought the site.
Joe Kaufman, a Florida-based activist and blogger who had identified himself in 2007 as the spokesman for Terror-Free Oil, told the World-Herald via e-mail that he no longer is involved with the group. He said he did not know how to reach them.
He said there are no other Terror-Free stations in the nation.
"The concept behind this was an honorable one and one ahead of its time, and I hope that one day the station is reopened and the group moves forward," Kaufman said.
American National Bank took the property back in November after the landowner, Stop & Go Plaza Inc., defaulted on a $192,000 loan, according to Douglas County records cited by the paper. The bank sold it this spring to Omaha Homes LLC, a company headed by Khalil Eljamal. The price, $110,000, was barely more than one-third the property's assessed value for tax purposes, $299,000.
Eljamal said he has lived in Omaha for 14 years. He owns several rental houses in Omaha and a business property in Bellevue.
He said the former Terror-Free Oil station was not a factor in his decision to buy the property. "I just bought the property from the bank," he said. "I have no information on the previous owner."
He said it is a prime location, along a heavily traveled Street, in a good neighborhood with strong businesses and high land value.
Eljamal said he tried for a month or two to lease out the property as a gas station. He had only one inquiry, at a price that was much too low. He decided there was not a future in competing with the Quik Trip next door. "If you want to open a grocery store, you don't move in next to Wal-Mart," he said. "It's tough for Mom-and-Pops to compete against the big guys."
Since he invested about $60,000 to have the gasoline dispensers and tanks removed two weeks ago, Eljamal has received several calls from potential tenants, the report said. He is hoping to land a solid long-term business, maybe a restaurant.
Eljamal has no immediate plans to remove the Terror-Free Oil signs. He said someone had recently offered to buy them, but "wanted them dirt cheap." Unless he receives a much better offer, he said he will leave that decision, and maybe the cost of it, to his future tenant.
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