TULSA, Okla. -- Due in part to cheaper land prices and more motivated developers, the QuikTrip Corp. convenience store chain has been able to pick up plenty of lots for potential store locations, Jeff Thoene, corporate director of real estate at QuikTrip, told the Tulsa World. "Developments that previously didn't want a gas station or a convenience store are now coming to us," he said.
Although Thoene, speaking at the monthly meeting of the Tulsa, Okla., chapter of NAIOP Commercial Real Estate Development Association, said the company is not planning to open a specific number of stores in the near future, he said the chain will most likely grow faster than usual thanks in part to the land situation.
Finding new sites to build is a complex process for QuikTrip. The company's real-estate group alone employs 40 people, said the report, and they evaluate locations carefully.
"Our site acquisition process isn't the shortest in the world, because our store locations are expensive, and we don't want to make a mistake," Thoene said.
Even so, some stores take more time than others. Tulsa-area stores can come together relatively quickly, the report said, but red tape in the Phoenix market can drag out development for up to two years, Thoene added.
Key factors QuikTrip looks for when scouting locations include a minimum of 1.5 acres of land, a high number of adjacent households, significant daytime population and traffic, good access and visibility, employee safety and the location of competitors. But these factors require a certain amount of flexibility if some aspects are particularly good or limiting.
"You could have too much traffic at a site, and it wouldn't work," Thoene told the newspaper.
In the near future, the company plans to continue spreading the new, "Generation 3" store prototypes from beyond Tulsa, seek out new markets and aggressively add new types of food prepared at the company's QT Kitchens, he said.
Despite plans for growth, QuikTrip has learned that trying to set goals for specific numbers of new locations can lead to bad choices. "We focus on opening great locations, rather than a lot of locations," Thoene said.
Tulsa-based QuikTrip currently has a total of 582 stores in 11 states. The chain opened 211 stores in the last eight years, according to the report, and is now concentrating on establishing a presence in North Carolina and South Carolina.
"We will be expanding into what's called the upstate South Carolina area, and also the Charlotte North Carolina metropolitan area," QuikTrip spokesperson Mike Thornbrugh said in August. On top of that, the company is looking to either expand or rebuild older stores in Tulsa, Dallas, Des Moines, Omaha, Atlanta, Tucson, Ariz., and other markets, he said.
Meanwhile, QuikTrip has sold four of its Tucson properties, reported the Arizona Daily Star. It sold three properties to SFG LL 2011-1 LLC for about $3.5 million, $3.1 million and $2.9 million. And it sold one property to West Coast Properties LLC for about $3.6 million.
The sales are leaseback transactions in which QuikTrip remains at the properties as a tenant, Thornbrugh told the paper. The Tulsa, Okla.-based convenience-store chain has been expanding rapidly in Tucson and has carried out leaseback transactions at other local properties, said the report.
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