City Purchases Former BP Gas Station, Portage Crossing Update

The vacant BP gas station at the corner of State Road and Portage Trail will soon vanish.

The city announced it purchased the property Fri., Sept. 9 in order to prepare it for the ground breaking of Portage Crossing, a retail and business complex to be constructed by Stark Enterprises.

"Due to its great, visible location, this corner is a key parcel for the redevelopment of the new Portage Crossing retail project," said, in a press release.

The parcel was purchased for $885,000, a shared expense between the city and Stark Enterprises (each paid half).

"We will now aggressively pursue the demolition of the property,” Susan Truby said, director of development, "in order to prepare the property for groundbreaking."

Moving Forward With Leases and Groundbreaking

Stark Enterprises COO Steve Rubin said in the press release that he will share more details on the project and its timeline soon.

"We are very pleased and excited by our progress and expect to have announcements shortly. We are very cognizant that we told the public that we hoped to have announcements around Labor Day. We are working hard to get in that position as quickly as we can."

The city details that the names of the stores who sign contracts will then appear on the Portage Crossing sign at the corner where the BP station currently sits.

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