Tag: Gas Station

Business Relocating, Event, Food and Drink, Renovation

Jacksons Store and Shell Station Opens

On June 22nd, the Jacksons Food Stores and Shell Gas Station reopened to customers on the corner of NE Glisan Street and 82nd Avenue. This multi-year project involved merging two properties and expanding the store’s footprint to accommodate an enhanced selection of edible items. The Jacksons design team implemented several retail and food service advancements throughout their new market, many of them firsts for the chain’s Oregon stores.

The redesigned Jacksons at 611 NE 82nd Avenue features a market-style store with prepared foods and grocery options, an eight-pump refueling station, and a corner pedestrian plaza with covered seating. The entire project added numerous new street trees and landscaping while retaining many of the preexisting mature trees. Later this year, a local artist will install a mosaic tile mural on the corner wall visible to all passing by the station.

The original gas station’s convenience store offered a modest selection of snacks and drinks in a confined space. According to Alex Romero-Chavez, District Manager for Jacksons, the structure itself had outlived its useful lifespan. He explained that the company would have needed to rebuild the store even without any expansion at this location. While looking at the site for improvements, Jacksons determined that an expanded store in this location would benefit the neighborhood. The group purchased an adjacent property to the north that once housed a Pizza Hut restaurant, merging the two properties into a 0.92-acre parcel.

Designers working with Jacksons used that expanded space to create a 4,452-square-foot convenience store with modern stone cladding. Customers can enter from the sidewalks or one of two parking lots to the north and south of the building. Gerard Aguilar, Regional Manager for Jacksons, anticipates store patrons will be impressed with the selection of food and drinks available at this location. Staff stocked the store with grocery essentials, including milk, eggs, and bacon. Shelves contain a wide assortment of chips, drinks, desserts, and other snacks. This location has an extensive selection of bottled wines and beer. A walk-in “beer cave” surrounds the shopper with a multitude of beer selections in self-fronting racks that always keep the brews visible to shoppers.

Walk-in “beer cave”

Prepared hot and cold food is another marquee feature of this store, and many new technologies help keep the food at peak taste throughout the day. It starts with an onsite kitchen in the back where precooked base ingredients are heated and assembled into the dishes available in the self-service displays. Hot food shelves use heated air curtains to keep the food at the optimal temperature until purchased. That retail technology works similarly to the cold air curtain used for open-faced refrigeration units. Even the pizza display utilizes new technology to better preserve the product. In addition to heating, it uses humidity controls to prevent the dough from drying out.

Hot dispensers use heated air-curtain similar to the cool air-curtain used for open-faced food storage

People looking for the staple of this type of store can use the brewed-to-order automated coffee machine. However, the cutting-edge automatic milkshake machine could see significantly more use, at least during summer. Customers can place a special ice cream cup into the machine and have it whip the frosty creation while they wait. Romero-Chavez explained that he has high hopes for serving the neighborhood. “This should be the destination for the whole community.” He envisions it replacing some grocery store trips for people in the community. The central location for the store has the potential to fill the gap left by last year’s closure of Sunny 82nd Market. Romero-Chavez is particularly excited to serve people who use the Montavilla Park and Community Center across the street that may need a take-and-go option.

Speed of shopping is an integral part of this store’s redesign, and Jacksons has just begun to roll out self-checkout to improve the customer experience. Each payment terminal can flip over and become a cashier-free station for credit card paying patrons. Age-verified products and cash sales will require store staff to ring up the purchases, but customers can otherwise checkout independently without waiting in line. This process only recently graduated out of testing, making this one of the first locations in Oregon to implement this payment option.

Over the last month, new store staff have trained at other locations. Jacksons has filled thirteen of the sixteen positions, and those employees have spent the previous few days readying the shop. The store will open daily from 5 a.m. to midnight, with plans to transition to 24-hour service when business conditions warrant it. People working and living near this store should now have a new option for convenient access to a variety of food items.

By

Jacob Loeb

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Construction, New Business

Store and Gas Station at NE 82nd and Glisan

A replacement convenience store and gas station’s site plan reveals an attractive property with many new public spaces. At a Montavilla Neighborhood Association (MNA) meeting earlier in the year, the architect for this project presented his designs. The presentation included a Site Plan and Implementation Plan for the new Jacksons convenience store and gas station located at 515 NE 82nd Ave. As part of the development, MNA will help select a mosaic-tile art installation facing the intersection of NE 82nd Ave and NE Glisan Street.

The mosaic will be part of a new Pedestrian Plaza at the southeast corner of the property. This area will include a 100 square foot covered area, 8′ long benches, and trash receptacles. In addition to trees and other plantings, concrete pavers and low-level yard lighting will further cultivate a mini parklike feeling at the plaza. It will provide ample space for those using the 72 bus stop or waiting to cross the busy intersection.

This new gas station and store will occupy the current Shell Gas station site and a former Pizza Hut property. Earlier this year, both lots combined into a single property. The City of Portland is currently reviewing demolition permits for the existing gas station, convenience store, and Pizza Hut building. Their removal is necessary to make way for this new development.

Pedestrian access in this area will significantly improve as a result of this project. Sidewalks around the site will increase to meet the new width specified in the 2019 82nd Avenue Plan. Curb cuts for vehicle access will move away from the intersection, giving pedestrians defined areas where cars will travel through the sidewalk. Currently, a vehicle could cross the sidewalk at practically any point along the properties edge.

The new 4,452 square-foot connivance store is being constructed in the northern half property but close to the center. A new raised concrete walkway protects customers walking from Glisan Street to the store. It will run along the west side of the property and curve around to connect with NE 82nd Ave. Additionally, the walkway could help the walking public avoid all gas station traffic when traveling between Glisan and 82nd by safely cutting across the property.

Nine onsite spaces provide parking for the store, with one dedicated for accessible parking. Four parking spaces are positions on the south side of the building, and the remaining five are on the north side. The replacement fueling canopy and pumps are comparable in size to the existing station. Pumps will shift to the west by a few feet.

The site plan includes a significant number of trees around the parameter of the property. An esthetically pleasing change from the massive concrete lot that exists there today. This location will remain a car-centric establishment, but its many human-scale amenities help it blend into the area successfully. If built as proposed, this will be a positive example of the changing nature of 82nd Ave.

Construction, Demolition, New Business

Demo for Mega Gas Station

Two new demolition permits have been submitted for the corner of 82nd Ave and NE Glisan. Both demolition sites are part of a new combined lot at 611 NE 82nd Ave. The permits reference an alternative address of 621 NE 82nd Ave and could become the final address of the replacement gas station being built.

Application 20-152293 seeks to demolish a restaurant and remove surrounding concrete sidewalks, ramps, parking lot asphalt, and wheel stops. No basement is onsite, so minimal fill will be needed when removing the foundation. The site will be cleared of all debris and utilities will be capped. This location had most recently been a Pizza Hut restaurant.

The linked demolition permit, 20-152279, will demolish the Jacksons Food Stores and carwash. Removal of the Shell fuel canopy, with concrete dispenser islands and gas pump equipment, is part of this application. The 96 square foot trash enclosure, concrete sidewalks, ramps, parking lot asphalt, and wheel stops are all being removed from the site. Similar to the other demolition, the site will be cleared of all foundations and utilities will be capped.

Demolition and construction could have been worked on in phases for this project. However, it seems that the site will be cleared of all structures prior to construction. The replacement fueling station will have more pump stations and a new connivance store. The store will have walk-in refrigerators and freezes, as well as a kitchen. These features could indicate the connivance store will house an in-store restaurant.

When completed, this will be the largest gas station in Montavilla. It will reshape the corner, mostly along NE 82nd Ave. The change will likely be positive for the area. The new gas station placement could make for safer pedestrian use of sidewalks around the site. Currently people using the bus stop or crosswalks at this location, have to contend with vehicles crossing over the sidewalks in close proximity to where people stand. The longer lot will allow for vehicle access away from the heavily used corner, giving a buffer for pedestrians.

Construction at this site will also help modernize the sideways. Sidewalk width should be increase as part of the 82nd Ave walkability improvements, and is trigged by construction of this size.

Although this will still be a car centric project, pedestrians should see some benefit. If done well, the new gas stations should add to the general revival of NE Glisan as a walkable business district.