Redner’s wants to open gas station at longvacant site
LOWER POTTSGROVE » A long derelict gas station at the corner of Mervine and North Charlotte streets may finally be getting a facelift.
Township Manager Ed Wagner confirmed Friday that Redner’s Markets has submitted a plan to clean up the site and build a new fuel station there.
“They’ve got some zoning issues they’re looking to get some relief on, but they want to get the land development process started. I think the sale of the property may be contingent on getting approvals,” he said.
Wagner said the plan calls for a small 210-square-foot kiosk and six gas pumps.
He said the formal submission was made to the township last week.
Both this site and one that used to sit in front of Suburbia Shopping Center on Route 100 in North Coventry are former Citgo sites that were owned by the estate of Boyd Davis Sr., who started the Chester County-based Moulton H. Davis Estate Oil Co. in 1955 as an offshoot of the family’s lumber business.
The now-defunct Davis Oil Co. also ran several gas stations, which included the Citgo stations in North Coventry and Lower Pottsgrove, and were run by Davis’s sons, Boyd Davis Jr. and Brooke Davis Sr.
In 2012, a jury convicted Boyd Davis Jr. of more than 80 counts of theft, forgery, receiving stolen property and dealing in unlawful proceeds.
The prosecution alleged Boyd Davis Jr. had undertaken “a massive theft” of nearly $500,000 and $600,000 from the estate of his parents.
And while the North Coventry site was cleaned up with the help of the owners of Suburbia Shopping Center, the Lower Pottsgrove site has languished for years.
That’s much to the chagrin of Lower Pottsgrove Commissioners Chairman Bruce Foltz, who, as far back as 2015, was predicting a speedy cleanup of the site.
“I have been trying to get rid of that thing for years,” he said back in 2015.
Wagner confirmed Foltz is “extremely pleased” that things look good for the site to be redeveloped.
Although the underground gas tanks were removed years ago, Wagner said the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is still involved in the process of redeveloping the site.
“It’s not a bad use for that location,” he said. “It’s a winwin for everybody.”