The owners of Windmill Market at the intersection of Hwy. 156
and The Alameda in San Juan Bautista hope to gain city approval to
build a gas station in a portion of the shopping center’s parking
lot near the main entrance to the historic burg.
The owners of Windmill Market at the intersection of Hwy. 156 and The Alameda in San Juan Bautista hope to gain city approval to build a gas station in a portion of the shopping center’s parking lot near the main entrance to the historic burg.
Jim Gibson, who also owns the Hollister Super and Baler Market grocery stores in Hollister, said he has submitted a preliminary proposal for the city to review and he is now awaiting the results of a traffic survey he commissioned before formally applying to build the station.
“We’re proposing four fueling stations that can handle up to eight vehicles at a time,” he said, noting that the small station will likely be 300-square-feet and have an “old-timey, art deco feel” to it.
“(The shopping center) has been a successful place, but we need to jack it up a little bit,” Gibson said. “I don’t think we’re suffering as much as they are in the historic downtown from this economic downturn, but traffic isn’t what it once was.”
The addition of a gas station could encourage more motorists to pull off the highway and visit the town, said Gibson, who added that he would allow downtown merchants or the Chamber of Commerce to advertise their businesses or place coupons in the station.
“If the gas station pays for itself, then I’ll be perfectly happy with that,” he said. “It’s really to increase traffic in the center off the highway.”
San Juan has just one other gas station, a recently-opened Valero at the western entrance to town off 156. The next closest stations are in Hollister. Former gas stations in San Juan now house a second-hand store and the city’s historical society museum.
See the Pinnacle on Friday for the full story.
