Project Profile: Magnolia Street Market
Fort Collins, Colorado
JB’s Convenience store provided fuel, a small convenience store and a beloved Asian market to the Fort Collins, Colorado, community for nearly three decades. Now under new ownership and a new name – Magnolia Street Market – the business is also offering customers a more convenient way to purchase fuel and an expanded Asian market.
Zack Owens and his wife, Katherine, added the business at 710 E. Magnolia St. to their business investments in November 2021 with plans to discontinue the Asian market, expand the convenience store and update the fuel system. The couple also own Lazy Bee Ranch Honey and a small winery that makes mead and honey wine.
“The big thing was bringing the fuel system into the 21st century,” Owens said.
He understood the importance of updating the 1970s-style Gilbarco dispensers so his customers could pay at the pump rather than going inside the convenience store to make their fuel purchases.
But new dispensers are pricey, so after much research and consulting with CGRS, Owens was able to find newer, refurbished Gilbarco dispensers that were within his budget and corresponded with the existing fuel suction system at the site. This was key to not having to excavate and re-pipe the entire system.
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The dispensers, which were shipped to and stored at CGRS for protection until installation, were updated to accept chip cards – an EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) requirement that protects fuel retailers from fraudulent credit or debit-card activities at their pumps.
Because CGRS has been providing compliance and other refined fuels services to the site since 1998, our team was distinctly aware of the age of the fuel system and that the unique shape and size of the site would make for a complex excavation. To avoid hitting any utilities, the CGRS team used a vacuum truck to dig the trenches to access the electrical conduits, which were buried too shallow to meet current codes and required replacement.
“CGRS did fantastic with the constant communication and working with us on a difficult project in the small space we had,” Owens said. “We were trying to avoid redoing everything. They kept working through the curve balls like trenching for electrical lines. They were great at keeping us moving forward.”
After learning how popular and deep-seeded the Asian market was in the community, Owens and his wife decided to not only keep it open, but also to expand it. The building that houses the market and convenience store now features a new awning roof, siding and fresh paint.
And the feedback Owens has received indicates the update to the store and the fuel system was a smart business decision.
“It’s all positive so far,” he said. “Everybody’s loved it.”
