A new gas station is in the works for St. John, and the public is invited to a hearing to be held by the developer at 6 p.m. Sunday at the Westin Resort and Villas.
Currently St. John has only one gas station open, the E&C gas station located in Enighed. The Domino station in Coral Bay closed in March, but company spokesman Marta Novoy said Thursday from Puerto Rico that the station and the company’s Domino stations on St. Thomas will reopen.
However, she added that she wasn’t sure when.
The new gas station, as well as a convenience store, will be located on 1.5 acres of land in Estate Adrian. It’s in the same Centerline Road area as a now-closed concrete plant and also the site of a recently held religious revival. That concrete plant space is now occupied by Love City Home and Garden Center.
Developer Guilderoy Sprauve said he is in the midst of obtaining a rezoning and the necessary permits to install three 10,000-gallon above-ground fuel tanks on the property.
“Everything else is in place. We have the funding,” he said.
Before work can begin, the Planning and Natural Resources Department (DPNR) must hold an official hearing on the rezoning request. Sprauve said the property is currently zoned R-1 (residential, low density). He wants it rezoned I-2 (industrial).
The concrete plant site is already zoned I-2, Stuart Smith, DPNR’s St. John planner, said. Smith said that DPNR hasn’t scheduled an official hearing, but Sprauve said he anticipated it would be in three to four weeks.
According to Sprauve, the storage tanks will be double walled.
The station will sell three grades of fuel as well as diesel, Sprauve said.
The gas station will be self-serve, but Sprauve said a person will be on duty. Additionally, he said the convenience store will be “robotic,” meaning that it will also be self-service.
“You’ll be able to pay by cash, credit or debit card,” he said.
Sprauve envisioned this will be the first in a chain of gas stations that will stretch from St. John to St. Thomas to south Florida. He said they’ll be named Bunjix, after his the nickname of his father, Roy Sprauve.
Sprauve is involved in the family business, the St. Thomas-based Diesel Co. LLC, which he said sells fuel to ferry boats.
Sprauve initially planned to place the gas station on a plot of land further east, but said that after hearing residents’ concerns, he decided on the one near the former concrete plant.
He said the location will be convenient for people traveling between Cruz Bay and Coral Bay.
In 2004 Sprauve had a nearby half-acre of land rezoned from R-1 to B-3, business scattered, so he could build a shopping center, which has yet to be built.
