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This is what the 7-Eleven on South 21st Street looked like in February, when it was still open. The stoplight at left faces traffic from Bott Avenue. The store itself is in the middle, under the logo and striping effect. The space with different facades on left and right are for office units, which were originally built for company use. The new store will look smaller because it won't have them.
Westside Pioneer photo

No tornado needed: 7-Eleven plans to tear down, replace store on South 21st

      
An engineer's sketch shows the planned storefront of the new 7-Eleven on South 21st Street.
Courtesy of Colorado Springs Planning and 7-Eleven Inc.
As many people are noticing, the 7-Eleven store at 1011 S. 21st St. has been closed since the end of May - possibly for the first time since a tornado hit it in 1979.
       What the tornado failed to accomplish, heavy mechanized equipment will carry out sometime soon: the destruction of the 46-year-old building.
       Once the rubble is cleared, according to the convenience-store development plan approved by the city this spring, the old facility will be replaced with a new one on the just-under 1-acre site.
       A time frame for the demolition/rebuild is not yet known. For that purpose, the company has submitted a project plan to the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department (PPRBD). It is still under review, a spokesperson for the agency said June 1.
       According to website information, PPRBD found multiple problems with the initial project plan submittal - including a need for hazardous material storage and underground tank dispensing permits - disapproving the plan May 24 and noting that a resubmittal would be necessary.
      
The site plan for the new 7-Eleven on South 21st includes various notes related to development details, but the main reason it's presented with this news article is to show how the store gas pumps will be situated on the site (lined up parallel to the building, with perpendicular pump access). Also of possible interest in the site plan are a pedestrian walkway, all the way along the front and around the sides, and enhanced landscaping.
Courtesy of Colorado Springs Planning and 7-Eleven Inc.
When built, the new 7-Eleven will have the same type of north-south rectangular shape and layout as the old one, with parking in front of the store, off 21st Street.
       A noticeable difference is that the new building will be less than half as big - 3,062 square feet compared with 7,180. The old structure had offices on either side of the store, with space initially designated for 7-Eleven's regional administrators. However, that use was discontinued in recent years, and the space was leased out to other entities.
       The new building will be a store only, the development plan shows, and its square-footage will be similar to that of other modern 7-Elevens. Older stores were smaller. The two on West Colorado Avenue (in the 1400 and 3000 blocks), built in the early 1980s, are each 2,400 square feet. The store at Uintah and 19th, which is not owned by 7-Eleven Inc., was built in 1984 at 2,560 square feet, the El Paso County Assessor's website states.
       Another difference in the new 7-Eleven will be the alignment of the gas pumps. The old pumps, which have already been removed, although their frames remain - were at an angle to the building (northeast to southwest). The new pumps will have perpendicular pump access, according to the site plan, and be located more directly in front of the store.
       No comment on the project was available from 7-Eleven, despite repeated outreach attempts by the Westside Pioneer to various listed contact numbers and e-mail addresses, going back to when the development plan was submitted to City Planning in February.
       What's known is that the 21st Street site changed hands last October, being purchased for $1.26 million by 7-Eleven Inc. The Assessor's website lists a post office box for 7-Eleven Inc. in Dallas, Texas.
       The property and business were previously owned by AHAG LLC, a local corporation, which still owns a potentially valuable 1.77 acres of vacant land just up the street at 1035 S. 21st. The location is at the northeast corner of Broadway and 21st; the Gold Hill Mesa long-range plans designate Broadway as the main access to the development's future (but as yet undefined) commercial area.

Westside Pioneer article
(Posted 6/3/17, updated 6/6/17; Business: Changes)

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