ATLANTA & ALTOONA, Pa. -- Two major regional convenience powerhouses--RaceTrac and Sheetz--are talking again about their expansion plans--in the Jacksonville, Fla., and Charleston, W.Va., areas, respectively.
The RaceTrac convenience "superstore" with 20 fueling positions being constructed in Jacksonville, Fla., is part of RaceTrac Petroleum Inc.'s larger expansion in northeastern Florida, said The Florida Times-Union, pumping some jobs into the sputtering construction industry. Since 2010, RaceTrac has opened four new stores, is currently building two others [image-nocss] and has plans for two more on the drawing board, the report added.
"Jacksonville is definitely an area where we would want to keep expanding that growth," Taylor Elzey, a real-estate representative for RaceTrac, told the newspaper. "For us, we're looking at all the markets and going after the best sites we can find."
Elzey said RaceTrac designs its stores with an eye toward making it easy for customers to find an available pump. "Everyone hates to go into a jammed up lot," she said.
She said that in 2010, RaceTrac set a goal of building 50 new stores across its entire territory and ended up opening 53. In Florida, the Orlando market has also featured construction of new stores. RaceTrac primarily looks for locations close to interstate highways. "The interchange locations are really our bread and butter," she said.
Headquartered in Atlanta, RaceTrac operates more than 300 convenience store locations in five southeastern states. A typical RaceTrac store features more than 4,000 square feet of convenience space with more than 4,000 items available to satisfy the needs of its guests and up to 24 fueling positions.
The superstore has become the model for the c-store industry, according to the report. It has replaced the old concept of an intersection with smaller stations on each corner.
"I think those days are past in terms of the development in the suburbs," Al Leiser, general counsel for First Coast Energy, a Jacksonville company that owns or operates about 200 Shell stations in Florida, told the paper.
He said that it has become tougher to find property for new c-stores. Large-scale retail centers often have zoning requirements that limit the number of parcels available for gas stations. When companies are able to obtain property, they seek to build larger stores because they know it is unlikely that a competitor will open next door or across the street. "That's one of the things you look at before you decide to invest a lot of money in the land and the building," he said.
This summer, First Coast Energy plans to build another of its Daily's stores in the St. Johns Town Center area. said the report. The new store will have 12 fueling stations. It is a short distance from an existing Daily's location that has 16 fueling stations.
Meanwhile, calling the Charleston, W.Va., area a "primary growth area," c-store chain Sheetz Inc. plans to open several locations in the Kanawha Valley over the next two years, reported The Charleston Daily Mail. Dave Hazelet, director of real estate for Sheetz, said Tuesday that the company has agreements to open as many as five stores in the area.
"We'd like to open that many at least, but we can't say that for certain until we get final approval from the state, county and local levels," he told the paper. The company hopes to build many more beyond that. Hazelet said the company has great interest in opening more stores along the Huntington-Charleston-Princeton interstate corridor.
"That has all been designated as a primary growth area for us over the next few years," he said.
The company has opened several new locations in the area recently, beginning with a site in Barboursville two years ago. New stores are under construction in Princeton, Beckley and Beaver, said the report.
"It's been a very good area for us," Hazelet added. "We like the valley, we like the Beckley-Charleston-Huntington run there, and we're looking to expand on that."
Agreements are in place for up to five locations in the valley, but Hazelet said those agreements are preliminary and dependent upon proper approvals from local planning officials and state agencies.
Sheetz approached the Charleston Planning & Zoning Board in March seeking approval to open a store in Kanawha City.
Based in Altoona, Pa., Sheetz Inc., with more than $4.9 billion in revenue for 2010, operates nearly 400 convenience locations throughout Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina.
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