A new Express Mart convenience store and gas station is going up in Barnhart.
The owner of the Express Mart franchise, Home Service Oil Co., also based in Barnhart, is replacing its location at 1621 Marriott Lane with a state-of-the-art station and store across the street at 6911 Metropolitan Blvd.
Both stores are on the Metropolitan Boulevard roundabout that includes an entrance ramp onto southbound I-55.
Jeff Mesplay, vice president of retail for Home Service Oil, said construction of the new store is about 35 percent complete.
“We’re looking toward opening at the end of June,” he said.
Mespley said the project will cost an estimated $5 million.
The new, 7,600-square-foot store will be a big improvement over the current 2,000-square-foot site, he said.
“It’s our largest store,” Mesplay said. “We think customers will be impressed when they walk through the door. It will be a very open layout, very sleek. In addition to all the standard convenience store inventory – soft drinks, candy bars, snacks, alcohol – we’ll have fresh food, Krispy Krunchy chicken and Hunt Brothers pizza.”
Unlike the company’s other eight Express Mart locations, customers won’t necessarily have to walk through the door, though.
“This will be our first location that we will have drive-thru,” Mespley said. “It’s kind of a test for us.”
The new location will accept all kinds of payments, including cash and credit cards.
“It will also have a self-service kiosk for people who want that option,” Mespley said.
In addition to the standard blends of Phillips 66 gasoline, the new store will sell diesel fuel, E-85, E-15 and DEF (diesel exhaust fluid), he said.
David Mangelsdorf, president of Home Service Oil, said when the new store opens, the company eventually will seek to sell or lease the old site.
“We’ll have a condition on it that it won’t be a convenience store or sell petroleum,” he said.
Mangelsdorf said he bought the 5.2-acre lot that will include the 3 acres for the new store about 15 years ago from former State Sen. Bill McKenna, who had a home there.
The family that owned the Grandpa’s variety stores also previously owned the home, Mangelsdorf said.
“It had a spring-fed pond in the front of it,” he said. “That was before the interstate (I-55) came through.”
