QuickChek Proposal on Bayport Civic Meeting Agenda

Representatives from QuickChek, a NY-NJ metro-based gas station-food market chain that wants to build on the corner of Snedecor Avenue and Montauk Highway in Bayport, are slated to appear at the Bayport Civic Association meeting Tuesday night to talk about the project and answer residents’ questions.

The presentation during the meeting, which starts at 7 p.m. at the Bayport Methodist Church, is a preview of what QuickChek will be proposing during a public hearing before the Town of Islip Planning Board on December 5.

The company is also proposing a QuickChek location in Brentwood, on Washington Avenue, and a public hearing on that proposal will take place before the town planning board on Nov. 20. That meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at town hall.

For the Bayport project, QuickChek has filed two applications with the town, one for a special permit to operate a gas station and another for a special permit to operate a convenience store.

QuickChek’s applications were initially scheduled for a public hearing on Oct. 24 but the company requested an adjournment to the Dec. 5 meeting, according to Islip Town officials.

QuickChek is proposing a 6,584-square-foot building with 14 indoor seats and eight outdoor seats and eight fuel pumps. The site now houses a home, a transmission business and auto sales lot.
According to the property owner, QuickChek, which typically buys the property for its operations, will be leasing the site. 

As Patch reported in September, QuickChek officials initially reached out to the Bayport-Blue Point Chamber of Commerce and the Bayport Civic Association to discuss the possible store project.

The chamber's executive board then met with QuickChek in a special board meeting in mid October.

“The purpose of the meeting was for fact finding purposes and to gather information for our members. The board has not taken a stand on this as they will also use the November civic meeting, that QuickChek is presenting at, to hear the civic concerns and to ask additional questions,” Chamber President Kathy Heinlein told Patch in an email.

While the chamber has not taken a stance, many in the local business community are clearly against the proposal citing traffic and safety issues and the negative impact on similar businesses already operating in Bayport. 

“No one, nobody wants this. We already have enough gas stations and we have Hess,” one gas station operator told Patch.

QuickChek is a family-owned company founded in 1967 that runs more than 130 stores throughout New Jersey and southern New York, and employs more than 3,500 workers.

In addition to gas pump bays, the locations offer fresh dairy, sliced deli and fill-in grocery products in a local community superette format, as well as breakfast, lunch and dinner takeout and catering services.

Stores also offer a full pharmacy service.According to its website, proposed locations for a QuickChek gas station/store require at least two acres, traffic of 25,000 cars daily, a corner property with signal intersection, room for a 5,400 to 7,000 square foot building and at least 40-car parking capacity as well as 24-hour operation use.

The gas station/convenience store would be substantially bigger than the Hess station located in Bayport just west on Montauk Highway, noted Civic Association President Bob Draffin when speaking about the project during a civic meeting in September.

“It would be the fifth gas station in Bayport,” noted Draffin. “[Montauk Highway] is becoming a bank, gas station, a bank, gas station [roadway].”