is looking to plant a new GetGo gas station on the property it once owned at the busy intersection of Bunts Road and Detroit Avenue.
However, plans for a renovation to the existing gorcery store across the street may have to wait.
Officials from the Pittsburgh-based grocer presented drawings to the city’s on Thursday.
at the busy intersection of Bunts Road and Detroit Avenue highlight a 5,600-square-foot brick building, with eight gas pumps, iron fencing and plenty of green space.
The GetGo station — unlike the company’s typical gas station — will offer some grocery items, prepared foods, a patio and a Wi-Fi café.
The site will also feature bio-retention landscaping, helping to alleviate the city’s storm water management issues, a move lauded by city officials.
“We’re taking a site that’s 100 percent impervious right now, to an almost 40 percent green area,” said Dru Siley, the city’s director of planning and development. “That’s a big shift.”
“It’s an improvement for sure.”
Giant Eagle sold its property across the street at 14013 Detroit Avenue to Urban Active in 2007. However, plans at the site to build a workout facility never came to fruition.
The building has been vacant since 2007, when Giant Eagle finished its move across the street to 14100 Detroit Avenue.
“Preliminary discussions” also included at the corner of Bunts Road and Detroit Avenue. However, Giant Eagle representatives recently told city officials those plans are on hold until at least 2013.
Officials said demolition of the existing GetGo structure — a grocery store that’s gone by a few names in its history — could begin by June. Construction could be completed by the holidays.
“We’d like to get the details and get going,” said Pat Avolio, the director of real estate development for Giant Eagle.
Avolio, who directed questions to the company’s public relations department in Pittsburgh, said the existing Get Go property at the intersection of Manor Park and Detroit avenues would likely be sold.
Board members asked about the proximity of the proposed gas station to neighboring homes. Giant Eagle officials said that the existing board-on-board fencing dividing the properties would remain as a “buffer” between the residential neighborhood to the south.
Should the city’s board of review approve the plans later this month, the project would still need a variance for a setback requirement from the city’s board of zoning appeals.
