Lebanon
The membership retail store plans to demolish the restaurant building to make way for six pumps, a canopy and kiosk. BJ’s also will plant 24 trees around the property and remove about 15,000 square feet of pavement to make room for green space.
The Friendly’s building has sat vacant since it closed in 2014. The Korpela Family Trust, which owns the property, hoped to get another restaurant to lease the space, but prospective tenants were deterred by the possible cost of a renovation.
The site sits just off the West Lebanon BJ’s parking lot, making it a prime location for the store’s pumps. Nelson Cabral, manager of development for BJ’s, said the company has about 220 stores along the East Coast, and roughly 130 of them have gas stations.
“They are, quite frankly, extremely popular with our members,” he told the Planning Board.
The pumps also could make gas pricing more competitive along Route 12A. The only other gas station in the West Lebanon strip along Route 12A, a Sunoco, sits north of the Exit 20 interchange.
With about 14,000 cars passing daily through the area, the company also is hoping traffic can sustain the pumps.
Traffic to the site is expected to increase slightly, according to Vanasse and Associates Inc., an Andover, Mass.-based engineering firm contracted by BJ’s. Weeknight trips will increase by as many as 39 vehicles per hour, and Saturday peak traffic will increase by 45 vehicles per hour, according to a memo provided to Lebanon planning officials.
Plans call for a reconfigured, shared entrance for the BJ’s store and gas station off of Route 12A. All vehicles would have to return to Route 12A via a traffic light across the street from the Walmart entrance.
BJ’s also said in its application that it intends to elevate the Friendly’s site to house gas pumps, because it currently sits in a 100-year flood plain. Tropical Storm Irene flooded much of the Route 12A strip in 2011, including the nearby Upper Valley Plaza and stores near Staples, and the Planning Board has been skeptical of projects that don’t address the flood plain.
The board unanimously approved the project, though board member Kenneth Morley asked if the company would consider installing an electric car charging station. Several charging stations for Tesla vehicles were built across Route 12A near the Price Chopper.
Cabral, the BJ’s development manager, said it’s unlikely the gas station would be the proper spot for a charging station, saying it would be better in a parking lot for a retailer since charging takes some time. A BJ’s in New York has a charging station near the front of the store, but that isn’t an easy undertaking, he said.
“We’ve run into problems because the manufacturer hasn’t been able to keep up with maintenance of (the charging stations),” Cabral said.
“But we do have free air, though,” said Josh Swerling, who works with Bohler Engineering, which is involved with the gas station project.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com.