C.R.'s lone truck stop to become a Casey's

The only truck stop in Cedar Rapids will be rebranded as a Casey's General Store under an expansion planned by the company.

Casey's General Stores plans to expand the Just Diesel truck stop at 9055 6th St SW, near the Wright Brothers Boulevard exit on I-380. The plan would add regular gas and the Casey's fast-food concept to the location, according to Bill Walljasper, chief financial officer of the Ankeny-based convenience store chain.

While resembling a large convenience store, Walljasper said the facility will have a separate diesel fueling island for trucks separated from the other fueling islands.

“We have several of these in our markets, including Osceola and Stewart,” Walljasper said.

The new Casey's would be a short distance away from an existing Casey's General Store at 9125 Atlantic Drive SW. That convenience store would remain unchanged, Walljasper said.

Plans call for demolishing the existing 2,925-square-foot building and replacing it with a larger 6,631-square-foot building at a different location tht will be farther from I-380 and closer to Sixth Street. Casey's plans to expand parking from 55 spaces to 132 spaces, including 95 truck spaces.

Walljasper said Casey's plans to begin the redevelopment of the property this fall pending regulatory approvals. A target date has not been set for completion, but Walljasper said the project would be lengthier than a typcial store renovation because it would involve a building relocation, considerable paving, and other work.

The Cedar Rapids Planning Commission approved a preliminary site development plan for the project on Thursday, Appril 28. The approval was made with 12 conditions recommended by the city's community development department. They include a condition that Casey's submit a traffic signal petition for the intersections of Pester Drive and Capital Drive with Sixth Street SW and pat a portion of the costs associated with the future traffic signals at those intersections.

A final site plan must still be approved by the community development staff.

The 3.5-acre site was a Coastal Oil Station before Nordstrom Oil Co. acquired it in early 2004. Nordstrom Oil added a truck scale, dining area and convenience store, renaming the facility Just Diesel. It targeted the needs of truck drivers, and sold only diesel fuel.

Nordstrom Oil operated the HandiMart convenience store chain. It sold more than 30 of its stores to Casey's General Stores in 2007 for about $63 million, including the Just Diesel location. Just Diesel is one of the last that has not been rebranded as Casey's General Store.

Casey's has begun adding blender pumps at some of its convenience stores. Blender pumps allow owners of flex fuel vehicles to buy gasoline with higher ethanol blends than the E10 sold at most Casey's stores. Walljasper did not know whether Casey's will install a blender pump at the 6th St. SW store as part of the renovations, but said it is a possibility.