News Coverage PostTribune.com –Published: June 28, 2006
BP TO SELL 140 MIDWEST SITES, REBRANDING SOME, BUT NOT ALL
by Jim Stinson
Post-Tribune staff writer
BP is selling off 140 mostly Midwestern stores, franchises and empty lots, a BP spokesman said Tuesday.
The sale, with sealed bids due July 7, includes nine stations and lots in Northwest Indiana.
The sale of the properties, from Illinois to Pennsylvania, is being managed by NRC Realty Advisors LLC, and is part of the company’s property management plan.
But the sale doesn’t mean a change in BP products at many of the sites, according to Scott Dean, BP spokesman.
The Schererville BP station at U.S. 30 and Burr Street will see new ownership, some changes, but the BP brand will remain, and then some.
That store, in a lucrative market along a federal highway near one of the highest-income neighborhoods in Northwest Indiana, will be offered to a successful bidder.
Site plans indicate the gas station will keep its car wash and store, but will expand into the larger BP Connect convenience store with a Wild Bean Cafe – all done after a reconstruction project.
Other stores up for bidding include Cedar Lake’s Wicker Avenue store; Dyer’s Hart Street store; Munster’s Calumet Avenue; and Griffith’s 45th Street station.
Most of the units are already BP Connect stores. Cedar Lake and Munster will also get a Wild Bean Cafe.
In some cases, BP will allow buyers to rebrand — that is, hook up with other gasoline companies.
The company also is selling some land for redevelopment or rebranding. Those properties include a station on Cline Avenue in Griffith, lots on Indianapolis Boulevard in Hammond and Whiting, and the 1510 Grant St. lot in Gary.
NRC specializes in mass sales, and has since 1989, according to Amanda Gant, NRC spokeswoman.
Dean said BP decided to shake up its portfolio after strategic planning. Dean said BP has no plans to get out of the retail sector.
"We remain an active retailer of gasoline coast-to-coast,” Dean said.
BP operates about 14,000 retail stores in the United States. BP has direct or joint ownership over 3,500 stores, Dean said.
The majority of U.S. BP stores are franchised to "jobbers,” independent marketers who buy fuel from BP and then transport it to their gasoline stations, Dean said.
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