East Bay's version of pit row may grow

A 21/2-mile strip in Largo, already home to eight gas stations, may get another one soon. Some wonder how many is too many.

By SHARON TUBBS

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 12, 2000

LARGO -- Start at Bedford Circle and drive west on East Bay Drive.

The Shell gas station comes first. Then, a Texaco and a Mobil appear across the street from one another near Belcher Road.

Further along, there's Hess, another Texaco, an Amoco and a BP. Finally, another Mobil station.

Lose count yet?

That makes eight gas stations -- almost every brand you could think of -- within the 21/2-mile stretch from Bedford to Missouri Avenue. All of them are perched on the north side of East Bay Drive.

Later this year, another could be added to the list. RaceTrac wants to build a station on East Bay near Keene Plaza, also on the north side.

That would make nine.

"Good Lord, do we need a ninth one in a 21/2-mile stretch?" said resident Donald Wood, who thinks the plethora of gas stations dampens Largo's quality of life. "It's just overkill. . . . It's unconscionable."

The whole thing has even city officials scratching their heads.

"Isn't that incredible?" City Manager Steven Stanton said. "I can't imagine us needing another gas station on the north side."

But Stanton and others in City Hall say they can't control it. This is private enterprise.

As long as gas station owners think they can make a profit, the city has little power to stop them.

"We don't restrict gas stations based on the number. The market does that," Community Development Director Ric Goss said. The same goes for Walgreens and Eckerd drugstores, which have seemingly taken over Largo, Goss added.

People in the gas station business don't see a problem here.

Every morning at 6:30, Greg Thole cruises up and down East Bay, jotting down his competitors' gas prices. For two years, he has managed the Amoco near Highland, calling in other stations' prices to corporate higher-ups each day. They then tell Thole what numbers to put on his marquee.

But the gas isn't where Thole and his peers in the industry gain most of their profit -- or the distinction from competitors. The key is the convenience store where people come to buy cartons of cigarettes, Lotto tickets, deli sandwiches and sodas. With between 30,000 and 50,000 cars traveling near major intersections on East Bay each day, stations have a wealth of potential customers.

At Amoco, there's a Split Second store that Stanton, the city manager, frequents for its salads "full of cheese and ham," he said.

Kimie Thompson, general manager at the Shell station near Bedford, said people are still stopping at her "Experience the Difference" snack store.

At Mobil, Abe Saraeb is surrounded by two-liter bottles of Coke, Pepsi and Dr Pepper in his small office in back. He took over at the Mobil about a year or so ago, thinking the business would be good because of the high traffic flow near the East Bay-Missouri intersection.

Besides, Saraeb says, "I feel Largo is growing." Just last year, he points out, a new Eckerd drugstore was built down the street.

But he's not happy to learn that yet more competition in the way of RaceTrac could be coming soon. "Every time we have another competitor . . . it affects our business," he said.

RaceTrac recently asked the city to change from residential to commercial the land-use restrictions for a 2-acre vacant slab on East Bay near Keene Plaza. Goss and other staffers looked it over and recommended the planning board approve it.

The new station wouldn't hamper drainage or other types of infrastructure in the area, Goss said. It would fit in with all the other businesses and restaurants nearby, so there was no reason to reject it, he said.

The City Commission still has to approve the land-use change. Goss says it could be on a commission meeting agenda later this month or in early April.

A representative for RaceTrac could not be reached for this story. If commissioners approve the change, though, Goss estimates the company could build the ninth gas station in the 21/2-mile strip by year's end.

Saraeb, of Mobil, won't have to worry about losing at least one customer. Brian Ripley, an air conditioner technician for Adirondak Services, said he'll keep going there. The company credit card he uses gives Adirondak a break on Mobil gas, he said.

Tom Cooper probably won't become a RaceTrac regular either. The 72-year-old said he favors Amoco gas for his Mercury Tracer. Cooper, who lives near Highland Avenue and East Bay, has noticed the proliferation of gas stations here. But he has come to accept it.

"It's like pizza," Cooper said. "Every other corner is a pizza store. When I was young, it used to be a bar on every corner."

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