Gas Stations Unreplaced

[IronTiger]

There are scads of gas stations built in Houston, and obviously many of them have been redeveloped over the years (especially for highway construction), but what about the ones that weren't replaced after demolition? I can think of a few.

Exxon? - At Mangum and 290. Current home to Nick's Grill (suffering due to construction). Sign left intact. Gas station already gone for years.

Citgo - Braeswood and Post Oak. Formerly Meyerland Fuel & Auto Center, includes "Quik Mart" convenience store. Demolished in 2013 for reasons not entirely clear. [Wikimapia description]

Chevron - Antoine and 290. Demolished, left sign up and converted it to a "For Lease/Sale" sign.

??? - Brittmoore and Hempstead Road. Demolished sometime in the 1990s long before JV Automotive, Brake Check, and three 1980s-era fast foods met their demise. You deserve a cookie if you can remember this one--because I haven't figured it out.

Exxon - Westheimer and Addicks-Howell. Closed about 5-6 years and still undeveloped.

Is there any reason why so much of them have been demolished without redevelopment, or what?

[Ross]

Exxon at Shepherd and 11th. Many gas stations were closed to remediate leaking underground storage tanks and never reopened. I remember when the Exxon property above was for sale, the sign had a notice on it "Not for motor fuel sales", so presumably there is a deed restriction on that property. More recently, the Valero at Durham and 11th had the tanks removed, and is not a Title Max.

[IronTiger]

Exxon at Shepherd and 11th. Many gas stations were closed to remediate leaking underground storage tanks and never reopened.

That makes me wonder--the Citgo at Braeswood was completely torn up (unknown if they dug out the tanks) but a lot of others left concrete intact, indicating that they didn't dig deep. Does that mean these seemingly inert vacancies are continuing to pollute the soil? That's not good.

[therepguy]

Morning All

 

Two reasons comes to mind.

 

The first being that the oil companies are doing away with independents.

 

The second being the need by law to upgrade the current underground tanks. At a cost of well over a $1,000,000.00 per site. The sites with poor traffic flow are generally doomed.

 

Just a through or two

 

Rick

[IronTiger]

While I've seen many gas stations fail in out of the way areas, all of these (well, except maybe that mystery gas station--but it's still pretty good) were in highly visible areas and had good access. A few of the failed and unreplaced gas stations usually have to do with crappy access even though they got a good traffic flow.

[Ross]

 

The first being that the oil companies are doing away with independents.

 

 

In a word, no. Nearly all gas stations are now independently owned (albeit by companies that own a number of stations, as opposed to a sole proprietor type arrangement), the oil companies having sold their stations over the past decade or so, because it's a low margin business that's a pain to run and has potential liabilities that outweigh the benefits.

[mollusk]

IIRC, Brittmoore at Hempstead was a Texaco.

[Michelle C]

I don't know why, but old service stations seem to fascinate me for some reason. I love finding pictures of old stations and then trying to locate where they used to be. It is a next to impossible task unless something in the back ground gives you a clue. It is always great to find a picture with a location, then look at current Google maps to see what the lot looks like today. So please, if anyone has pictures of old stations in Houston please feel free to post them and location if known.

[IronTiger]

This deals with gas stations that have been demolished and then were vacant for an extended period of time, with most of these built in the 1970s or 1980s.

[Luminare]

There used to be a really nice old (and I mean really old) Texaco gas station on Cypress N. Houston and Jones, but eventually was torn down for some run of the mill shopping strip.

[IronTiger]

Well, see, that was torn down something for else. Sometimes they never seem to redevelop. Near that old Texaco, there was ANOTHER gas station just near it at Senate and 290 (southeast corner). Unless that was the Texaco previously mentioned, because there were two gas stations: one at the southeast corner of Senate and 290, one at Brittmoore and Hempstead Hwy.

[Purpledevil]

Has anyone mentioned the huge Exxon that was at the corner of Calvacade and N. Main? Torn down for nothing, and has been nothing for over 20 years now.

When they closed the old Texaco at Calvacade and Airline, they didn't pull the tanks out of the ground. Instead, they were filled with sand. This would've been back in the mid 80's, don't know if this practice is still used, or even should've been used back then.

[Specwriter]

When they closed the old Texaco at Calvacade and Airline, they didn't pull the tanks out of the ground. Instead, they were filled with sand. This would've been back in the mid 80's, don't know if this practice is still used, or even should've been used back then.

 

The old tanks aren't the problem. It's the soil around the tanks into which the gasoline has leaked that needs to be removed. Filling the tanks with sand certainly didn't take care of the stuff that had leaked out over the years.