Large convenience store project planned for Iowa Street

photo by: Chad Lawhorn

Plans have been filed at City Hall for a major makeover of the Zarco convenience store at Ninth and Iowa streets, including a proposal that would increase the size of the store by about tenfold. Plans call for the old Amoco convenience store — it briefly was a Sandbar sub shop — to be demolished.

There are plenty of times a convenience store has left me contemplating something big and mysterious, but ultimately I always decide to buy the extra large Slim Jim anyway. But today I’ve got news of a big and mysterious convenience store development of a different type.

Plans have been filed at City Hall for a major makeover of the Zarco convenience store at Ninth and Iowa streets, including a proposal that would increase the size of the store by about tenfold. But what the new space would be used for isn’t yet clear.

You may remember that we have written about this site before. Previous plans have been filed to add an approximately 150-foot tunnel car wash on the site. The car wash is part of the new plans too. But Scott Zaremba, president of the Lawrence-based convenience store chain Zarco USA, is looking to do more on the site.

Plans call for the old Amoco convenience store — it briefly was a Sandbar sub shop and currently has a paint job that looks like a Jimmy Buffett suit jacket — to be demolished. The existing Zarco convenience store, which is next door to the old Amoco building, also would be demolished.

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In place of the two buildings, the project would add new fueling pumps and a 5,700 square-foot convenience store. That’s a pretty big convenience store. For comparison purposes, the existing store is about 900 square feet. The QuikTrip at 23rd and Haskell is one of the larger convenience stores in town and it is about 4,500 square feet.

Zaremba said he has plans for filling up the building in a unique way, but he said he wasn’t ready to disclose details yet. But it sounds like he’ll be working in partnership with some other local businesses.

“There is going to be a great deal of innovation and a very unique blend of local items that we are going to be able to offer to customers,” Zaremba told me. “We’ve been working on it for awhile. Those of us involved are all local.”

As for the car wash idea that got all of this started, that is still happening too. A 140-foot tunnel car wash will be on the back side of the property.

For those of you who are fans of the Scooter’s drive-thru coffee location right at Ninth and Iowa, that building will remain, and the Zarco fuel pumps next to it won’t be affected by the plans either.

The project is seeking the necessary planning approvals from City Hall. Zaremba hopes to have them in hand soon and break ground this fall.