There are many pieces of properties across the country that are a toxic waste…and in many states the person who buys it pays for the cleanup…NH is one of them. And I know of at least one factory site that will cost the new owners MILLIONS to clean it up. Prime real estate and it lays untouched.
And that, boys and girls, is why you always want to incorporate your business, so they don’t come after your personal assets if you end up sitting on a toxic waste site (says Captain Obvious). I bet that’s why a lot of “prime real estate” sits and sits with various collapsing structures on it, cost more to clean it up than what its worth.
The mechanic I take my vehicles to told me he started his business as a gas station / garage but they eventually ditched the gas station and moved to a garage only. He said the gas station part was a distraction. A lot of overhead and liability in keeping the fuel tanks full, and you only make 2 - 3 cents on a gallon, especially when there’s another gas station across the street and a block away.
Not exactly car related, but talk about an abandon property becoming an eyesore because the local gov’t was too destitute to demolish it, google or search on youtube for Dixie Square Mall. Of course, maybe it is car related, they did the mall chase scene from The Blues Brothers in that mall, which was already abandoned by that time. Served as a mall for 13 years or so, sat abandoned and decaying for over 30 years.
That’s interesting. I kinda wondered why anyone would let them do that to a mall. Guess that’s why you have to keep a little slop in the local budget. It doesn’t do anyone any good to have a bunch of abandoned buildings around. They finally tore the Kmart down after sitting empty for years and now its just a big parking lot. I think once the roof starts to go, that’s the end of the line for these places. Water damage and mold are just too expensive to deal with, especially if you’ve got an obsolete floor plan or location.
Big problem. Many oil companies sold heir older stations to the operators, and now these guys want to retire and cannot sell the property, and cannot often afford the cleanup either…
Local laws here say that when you shut down a service station you have to start cleaning up the site within 9 months. There are several smaller station here that were shut down by the oil companies and took about $500,000 to $1 million average to remove the (non-leaking) tanks and excavate and clean up the soil. An nearby Exxon station shut down and was taken over by a donut chain, who took the responsibility for the cleanup. The large lot provided a great parking lot.
A really bad one across town had leaking tanks and a gas plume travelled underground under 3 residential properties. The small oil company that used to own won’t/can’t pony up and the city is on the hook for $5million for this one. The 3 homes may need to be demolished to get at all the contaminants.
Larger oil companies have separate property departments that deal with shutting down smaller stations and disposing of the property.
I did busoness with a,mechanic who leased three different service stations at different times–he moved from one location to another and his customers followed him. He decried the proliferation of service stations and figured that oil companies wanted to get into the real estate business by purchasing a prime location and erecting a station. This was back in the 1960s. My mechanic friend may have been right. Two of.the stations he leased back then were torn down. A big apartment and retail complex expanded where one station was located, a fast food replaced the second station. The third station sat empty for a long time and then the building was remodeled into Baskin Robbins ice cream.
"There are several smaller station here that were shut down by the oil companies and took about $500,000 to $1 million average to remove the (non-leaking) tanks and excavate and clean up the soil."
NJ was suing Exxon-Mobil for $8.9 billion, as a result of the damage to wetlands and other areas adjacent to their old now-shut-down refineries. However, our esteemed governor is such an expert negotiator that he decided to settle for $225 million, and to absolve Exxon-Mobil from responsibility for having to clean up a huge number of old gas station sites.
For those from other areas of the country who aren’t familiar with our governor’s grand give-away to this giant corporate polluter, here is a link to a recent article about his disgraceful deal:
What makes matters even worse, is that he is going to divert almost all of that $225 million to the general fund, in order to make it seem that the state’s finances are less precarious than they really are. The actual amount that will be allocated to environmental cleanup is about 10% of the settlement amount.
And, in case you think that I am some kind of wild-eyed radical, I am a confirmed capitalist who happens to own a large number of shares of Exxon-Mobil stock. However, I am also a taxpayer in NJ, and I know that vitally-needed environmental cleanup will wind up being financed by the taxpayers, instead of Exxon-Mobil being forced to pay for their misdeeds.
What a disgrace!
In my community in east central Indiana back in the 1950s we had the following major brands:Standard, Mobil, Pure, Texaco, Shell, D-X, Sunoco, Phillips 66, Sinclair, Cities Service, Gulf, and Marathon as well as several independents. Standard is now British Petroleum, Shell is still around, Phillips 66.left but came back about 3 years,ago, Pure became. Union 76 and then disappeared, D-X.became. Sunoco and all the Sunoco stations disappeared, Sinclair became ARCO and those stations are gone, Cities Service became Citgo and those stations are gone, Texaco and Gulf are gone, as is Mobil. Marathon now seems to have the.most outlets.
@VDCdriver things get tough, went to speak against open pit mining in N WI, would decimate the lands and lake superior with sulphide runoff that turns to sulphuiric acid, Mining bill passed to decimate dnr approval process. But then the scientists on dnr were eliminated in the next budget ie Scott Walker it seemed proponents of the mine got heard, but not may others. Still fighting sandpiper endbridge oil line near the cabins, it crosses numerous watersheds that are connected to so many recreational lakes, there is a course b, costs more and threatens nothing. Glad the rich people on the lakes in MN, Whitefish lake and Pine River etc. see the danger! Might have a chance of averting potential doom!
The EPA can and will go after ANY owner in the chain, they will start with the newest owner because they are the easiest to find and the most likely to be alive.
The Love Canal in Niagara Falls had been either given or sold to the Niagara Falls School District, didn’t stop the Feds from going after Hooker Chemical.
Assisted with a leaky tank cleanup,once upon a time,the worst toxin(a known carcinogen)according to the cleanup people was benzine,they didnt seem much concerned about the the tetraethyl lead.
Conoco & Phillips 66 merged, the new company had to sell many of their stations in order for the deal to be approved…Phillips is gone but there are still many Conoco stations around…Sinclare is still in business with many stations in the Denver area…They have a refinery in Sinclare, Wyoming…
We had the opposite experience during a 1996 Yellowstone trip. The only stations (with the exception of a couple independents) seen in Wyoming were Conoco and Sinclair.
There are two Phillips 66 stations in my east central Indiana Community. These stations opened up within the last 5 years.
Well on my way to the brush pile, I drove by that old Sinclair station that my old foreman bought. It still has the Sinclair colors on the building but that’s it. Just a garage now with the guy’s last name. I’ll have to stop by and see if he’s still alive or not.
Made a trip to Eugene OR this weekend and happened upon a Conoco station there. Hadn’t stopped at one of those in a long time but I think they’re still around in numbers in the Midwest and Rocky Mountain states.
Also noticed that the system in Oregon where driver’s aren’t allowed to pump their own gas seems particularly inefficient, time consuming, and cumbersome with no real benefit.
We recently traveled through Oregon. I was,surprised that an attendent had to pump the gasoline. I enjoyed talking to them–it made gas stops less impersonal.
True, makes it less impersonal. But then again for many people filling the car is just another errand to be done as quickly and efficiently as possible. But having to wait for an attendant to get to you, fill the tank, finish the transaction seems quite cumbersome. I found it took significantly longer than self-serve.
Not to mention how much having an attendant or two on duty at all hours increases the price of a gallon of gas.
@asemaster I agree,that self service stations are more efficient and all the stations in my area are self service. We were on vacation last month and I enjoy talking to people in different parts of the country while traveling. In Oregon, it was interesting to chat with the attendants at the service stations. One interesting experience I had was,my smartphone wouldn’t come on while we were,in Salt Lake City. I,went to a Verizon center. Not only did my phone get fixed at no charge_but they checked my records and suggested a cheaper plan which we accepted that would give the same level of service.
I will gladly pay a couple of cents more to have somebody else stink their hands up with gasoline.I used to go out of my way to find a full service station.
“Also noticed that the system in Oregon where driver’s aren’t allowed to pump their own gas seems particularly inefficient, time consuming, and cumbersome with no real benefit.”
NJ has a similar statute on the books, but it doesn’t stop me from pumping my own gas in order to expedite the process.
I’m still waiting for the mythical gasoline police to swarm in and put their cuffs on my wrists, but since they haven’t caught me violating this statute for the past 50 years, I think that the odds are in my favor to avoid being sent to The Big House for the heinous crime of pumping my own gas.