Old Stadium sports bar and strip mall to be demolished for new QuikTrip gas station in Rolling Meadows

A shopping center long-anchored by the now-shuttered Stadium sports bar in Rolling Meadows is set to meet the wrecking ball, making way for a QuikTrip gas station and convenience store.
Daily Herald File Photo 2022

A proposed QuikTrip fueling center and convenience store at the entrance and exit ramps of Route 53 will replace a long-standing strip shopping center in Rolling Meadows.

The 110,000-square-foot strip mall was anchored by Stadium Sports Club & Pizza for 38 years until the sports bar closed about a year ago. Stadium’s longtime owners, the Bufalino family, are selling the strip center to Tulsa, Oklahoma-based QuikTrip Corp.

The gas station — with eight fuel islands serving up to 16 vehicles — will offer high visibility to drivers entering and exiting the state highway at Algonquin Road, which is one of Rolling Meadows’ prime commercial and office corridors.

Glen Cole, the assistant city manager and community development director, acknowledged there already are gas stations on Algonquin and a new one may not be considered the best use for the property. But he added the location is well suited since it’s a gateway to Rolling Meadows, close to major east-west routes and the nearby Veridian development in Schaumburg.

City staff supported — and the city council this week approved zoning for — the new gas station because it would assist the commercial growth and tax base of the city and redevelop the aging, mostly vacant shopping center.

An artist’s rendering shows the front of the proposed QuikTrip convenience store on Algonquin Road in Rolling Meadows.
Courtesy of City of Rolling Meadows

Owner Nanette Bufalino told the city’s planning and zoning commission last month that remaining tenants are aware of the impending sale and demolition. Most of the remaining leases are on a short-term basis, with only a couple of standing long-term leases, and those have clauses allowing the property owner to discontinue them under the condition of sale of the building, Bufalino said.

Cole said city officials found a new location for one business in the shopping center and look forward to working with the others.

While the gas station and convenience store will be on a 1.7-acre lot on the west side of the property, a 1.8-acre lot on the east side is being eyed as a developable site. But after a suggestion was made by planning and zoning commission member Leigh Ferstein, a smaller detached portion of the existing shopping center could be preserved if the appropriate parties agree to a sale before a demolition permit is issued, according to the approved zoning ordinance.

A rear portion of the property will continue to be used for parking and as a buffer to the apartments to the south, while a front portion will be dedicated as public right-of-way for a planned future realignment of the intersection of Algonquin Road, Arbor Drive and Frontage Road to improve traffic flow.

Ali Bukhres, the real estate project manager for QuikTrip, said the redevelopment is part of the business’ expansion in the Midwest and Chicago suburbs. The new gas station would bring a dozen full-time and a dozen part-time jobs to the city, he said.

Construction is set to begin in June.