7-Eleven taking over tollway gas station operations
ExxonMobil has sold its lease agreement for the 13 fueling stations and convenience stores at the seven Illinois tollway oases to 7-Eleven for an undisclosed amount.
Tollway administrators approved the transfer, but the board of directors did not have to vote on the issue.
Tollway officials said Mobil brand gasoline will still be sold at the gas stations, but the On The Run convenience stores will be replaced by 7-Eleven stores by the end of March.
Neither 7-Eleven nor ExxonMobil officials would release financial information about the transaction. There are 17 years left on the original 25-year lease agreement with the tollway. In 2002, the tollway board approved the lease agreement with ExxonMobil and Wilton Partners that called for the two companies to invest $94 million in redevelopment of the seven oases. The improvements cost the tollway nothing.
Tollway officials rejected a similar lease transfer proposal between ExxonMobil and Combined Oil Co., based in Lincolnshire, in March 2010 because they feared the latter company didn’t have sturdy enough finances in place to handle liability issues or economic stresses. Agency officials didn’t have the same concerns with 7-Eleven, which operates 7,100 stores in the U.S. and Canada.
Unlike the financial trouble the tollway has had with the company managing the actual oases, the fueling stations and convenience stores have been a boon for the tollway and the oil company. At a minimum, the lease guarantees the tollway receives at least $900,250 a year in rent from the fuel station and convenience stores. However, operations have regularly outperformed the minimum.
The lease agreement calls for the tollway to receive 3 cents for every gallon of gas sold and 1 cent of every sale at the convenience store and car wash.
According to financial information obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, the tollway was entitled to $1.53 million from fuel sales in 2009, plus $159,216 from convenience store sales and another $7,008 from car wash profit-sharing. The report also states that motorists spent more than $67.6 million on fuel at the 13 stations along the tollway in 2009.