ST. LOUIS — QuikTrip has started the long zoning process required to build a new gas station and convenience store next to the Saint Louis University campus, which will require a series of public hearings and approvals from city and state officials.
The Tulsa-based chain of gas stations and convenience stores hopes to build a gas station at South Grand Boulevard Lafayette Avenue, near the entrance to SLU. QT has been rapidly expanding in the St. Louis region with multiple new locations proposed in south St. Louis County and University City, but has also seen pushback from neighbors as it adds more locations. The Missouri Supreme Court sided with Creve Coeur Tuesday after the city cited resident opposition to reject QuikTrip's bid to build a new store.
The plan to build by SLU, on sites controlled by its umbrella developer Midtown Redevelopment Corp., was announced last year and was intended to have its first hearing in front of a city board last week.
The petition to rezone a neighboring site QuikTrip already owns and wants to use for the development was listed on the Planning Commission’s Dec. 14 agenda, but was withdrawn by QuikTrip ahead of the meeting, the city said. City staff recommended that the petition be denied because staffers did not believe it fit with the SLUP Neighborhood Preservation Area, a preservation area created by the Board of Aldermen.
Representatives of QuikTrip and Midtown Redevelopment Corp. did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday on the status of QuikTrip’s plan.
To move forward as proposed, the project would require rezoning of a 0.09-acre vacant duplex home site owned by QuikTrip at 3616 McRee Ave., west of South Grand. QuikTrip wants to consolidate that site with five commercially zoned properties to eventually demolish the duplex for the gas station, according to city filings.
QuikTrip currently owns four of the properties needed for its project — 1625 and 1635 S. Grand and 3612 and 3616 McRee — and does not yet own two others, at 3618 and 3621 McRee, according to city filings. Four of those properties are currently used as a parking lot, and another is undeveloped, according to city documents.
The Planning Commission in 2016 approved a redevelopment plan for the 395-acre St. Louis Midtown Redevelopment Area for Chapter 353 tax incentives, designating Midtown Redevelopment Corp. as the umbrella developer. Midtown is a joint venture of SLU and SSM Health that has development rights over the area and can grant tax incentives, although individual projects still need city approval.
Spenser Owens of Thompson Coburn is representing QuikTrip on the zoning proposal and wrote in a letter to the Planning Commission that over the past three years QuikTrip has “had extensive discussions and buy-in from neighborhood surrounding the Property” about the development.
Brooks Goedeker of Midtown Redevelopment sent a letter saying the development agency’s board supports the project, and Tiffany Community Association President Jon-Pierre Mitchum also wrote a letter in favor.
Residents near the proposed QuikTrip said that they sent nearly 100 letters to the commission opposing the project ahead of the meeting. City officials did not immediately respond to a request for the letters.
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