Regent Square Gas Station to be Sold, "GetGo" Discussions Taking Place

After 32 years of business, Dave Gerenyi is retiring from his landmark Sunoco auto center at Braddock and Hutchinson avenues in Regent Square.

Depending on what company buys the station, there may be some big changes in the business district during 2012. Gerenyi is currently in talks with Giant Eagle for a possible GetGo gas station location which may take over the spot.

"It's not official to me until it's completely done," he said of the possible deal. "We have been talking to them quite a bit but it's not etched in stone."

The iconic auto service center, located in the Edgewood portion of Regent Square, currently is being offered for sale by Langholtz, Wilson & Ellis, and offers now are being accepted.

“This is a great community and it’s been a fine location for us," he said. "I’ve really enjoyed knowing a lot of fine people here over all these years, but I’m ready to move on. I hope the next owner finds just as good a location as it’s been for us.”

Gerenyi said his brother, Bob, had a gas station and garage at the location since 1969, and he renovated the building in 1970. Dave joined him in the business in 1979 and eventually took over as it progressed through a series of affiliations with Mobil, BP and now Sunoco for the past 10 years.

The Gerenyi shop is a rare thing - a full-service fueling station. Driveway workers pump fuel, clean windshields and check the air in tires at the full-serve island. It costs a few cents more per gallon, but for the elderly, disabled, over-dressed and lazy it’s a grand thing.

There are eight pumps at the station - four for full-service and four for self-service. The heart of Gerenyi’s business is the three-bay garage. The station offers state inspections, emissions testing and service, and general repairs for tires, lubrication, cooling systems, brakes, exhaust and most everything short of body work and transmission repairs.

Gerenyi said the location has been an integral part of the neighborhood since at least the 1930s, when a previous owner did a big business in fuel and tires. In those days, there were gas stations all over the East End, including one at South Braddock and Sanders, now where stands.

Nowadays, GetGo style stores are the model for the gasoline business -- self-serve fuel sales attached to a convenience store, but with no mechanical work. The BP store about a half-mile south along South Braddock Avenue is an example.

Customers at Gerenyi’s appreciate having an actual relationship with the driveway workers and mechanics. Aside from buying fuel, drivers have auto service concerns of two types -- things that break (flat tires, blown radiator hoses) and things that require state inspection. Prompt service at a fair price is the gold standard, especially with Pennsylvania’s stringent safety and pollution requirements.

Regent Square customers enjoy the opportunity to drop a vehicle at Gerenyi’s  for mechanical work and then walk home or board a bus to travel to work or school. Or, while waiting for a lube and oil change, customers can shop for antiques, browse an art gallery or enjoy a drink just steps away.

One kink in the marketing of Gerenyi’s involves environmental standards. Any change of use to a retail or office structure would require removal of the underground fuel storage tanks, plus remediation of the soil contaminated by fuel seepage since the 1940s. That’s an expensive and complicated proposition a potential buyer will have to consider.

Manager Warren Cecconi said the Gerenyi property is “a major feature and focal point of Regent Square’s commercial mix. It makes a big difference what kind of business occupies that location.”

Cecconi said borough zoning for the Gerenyi property allows general commercial use for retail, non-profit or service-related businesses.

There are standards that require adequate parking for the building if it is  replaced or reconfigured, and the height of any building on that land cannot exceed three stories or 30 feet.