A Kum & Go gas station and convenience store at the busy intersection of West Bypass and Chestnut Expressway is slated to relocate in first-quarter 2017.
The 425 N. West Bypass store - one of four being updated in the Springfield area - is moving kitty-corner to 3434 W. Chestnut Expressway, the former site of Cliff’s Auto Sales. Traffic volume at the intersection is estimated at 19,262 vehicles per day, according to 2014 data from the city’s Traffic Operations division.
Kristie Bell, communications director for West Des Moines, Iowa-based chain Kum & Go LC, said relocating the North West Bypass store is part of a companywide initiative for all new construction to match the company’s Kum & Go Marketplace design.
“That’s really what we’re going for moving forward,” Bell said, noting the West Chestnut Expressway store would have an increased footprint of 6,200 square feet compared with 4,000 square feet at 425 N. West Bypass. “Those smaller stores don’t allow us to add the food that we’d like to have, and add more fuel dispensers so that it’s easier for folks to get in and out.”
Bell declined to disclose the construction budget for the new location. However, building permits on file with the city indicate an estimated cost of nearly $1.67 million.
Local Kum & Go stores built to the new specifications, designed by Merriam, Kan.-based BRR Architecture Inc., include those opened in March at 3049 E. U.S. Highway 60 in Republic and in June at 2704 S. Campbell Ave. in Springfield.
Other stores underway include 638 E. U.S. Highway 60 in Republic, which will be razed and rebuilt on the site, and Kum & Go’s market entry in Ozark at the former Riverview Plaza retail center near the northwest intersection of West Jackson Street and North Ninth Street. Bell said both projects are scheduled for completion by the end of 2016.
Similar to the West Bypass store, a Kum & Go at 1306 W. Sunshine St. is scheduled for relocation to a new structure at 1211 W. Sunshine St. by spring 2017. Bell added the company is seeking to install the Marketplace design concept at all new stores over the next five years.
“You’ll see continual movement with that - either renovations, razes and rebuilds - or we may close a store depending on the coverage in the area,” Bell said, noting no stores in the Springfield area currently are scheduled for closure. “It’s not that the outside will look the same everywhere, but the offerings that are inside the stores is what we’re shooting for.”
With the addition of the Ozark store at year’s end, Bell said Kum & Go would operate 46 locations in the Springfield metropolitan statistical area.
