GARLAND — The newest wave of the North Texas service-station market is Ricky Rockets, a space-age themed business due to open late this year.
Ricky Rockets is set to be a key part in Garland's plans to redevelop its industrial hub, which lost Raytheon and its thousands of employees more than two years ago.
Here's some things to know about the development — which is entering a market known for the likes of Buc-ee's and Fuel City — taking off at Jupiter and Miller roads.
Who is Ricky Rockets?
Ricky Rockets is a Chicago-area travel station company with two existing locations and two more under construction in Illinois. The existing locations feature a storefront, gas pumps and a car-wash.
In the Chicago suburbs, Ricky Rockets has taken on a long-deserted Kmart site in Kankakee, Ill., and razed a gas station and food mart to build in its home suburb, Hoffman Estates, Ill.
In Garland, Ricky Rockets plans gas pumps along both major streets, an 8,000-square-foot convenience store, a separate retail outlet, a restaurant and a car wash. Diesel lanes and an area for 16 trucks will be placed in the back of the property.
Like Buc-ee's beaver, the Ricky Rockets mascot is an attempt to be nostalgic and family-friendly. The founder wanted it to resemble Sinclair Oil's green dinosaur.
"For lease" signs are in the restaurant and retail space windows. Garland officials said the development will be ready by the end of the year.
Follow the money trail
Why Garland? And why a location that isn't along the freeway? Because the money trail appears to lead there.
Garland has a successful trucking corridor near LBJ Freeway, but few retail outlets that cater to truck traffic. The developer's projection is that Ricky Rockets will sell an average of 450,000 gallons of diesel and 350,000 gallons of commuter vehicle gas every month.
Ricky Rockets will also stand out in the area. The restaurant's drive-through and the small retail outlet won special approval within the area's industrial zoning, meaning it won't have much competition in the existing neighborhood.
City staff actually didn't like the plan to break off the 8 acres on the corner of the former 110-acre campus that Raytheon vacated. They recommended denial of Ricky Rockets zoning when the proposal came to council in 2016.
But the city's plan commission and Garland's City Council ignored the recommendation and unanimously approved the plan. Because the site is in an industrial hub, the decision was ultimately far less contentious than the Cedar Hill City Council's recent decision to approve Fuel City over many residential neighbors' opposition.
Mayor Lori Dodson, who represented the area as council member when Ricky Rockets was approved, said the gas station fits what the city has been trying to accomplish.
"Raytheon actually for years had been telling us exactly what they needed were these complimentary services," Dodson said. "And letters we received were stating the exact same issues from the other nearby businesses."
Brand fits the neighborhood
Ricky Rockets' logo and its futuristic look are also emblematic of the city's hopes for its surroundings, which together represent the first major redevelopment of Garland's 1960s industrial corridor.
South Korean-based Nutribiotech has grown its dietary supplement business on nearby property since 2015. Nutribiotech is renovating 375,000 square feet of office space and building a 250,000-square-foot U.S. headquarters along Jupiter Road.
In addition, the first of three buildings and 800,000 square feet of interior space being developed by Dallas-based Langford Property Co. will open in the first quarter of 2019 as the first U.S. plant for Quest Window Systems, a Toronto-based company. Quest plans to employ 320 people.
And a trucking business, Southeastern Freight Lines, is already open along Miller Road in a previously undeveloped portion of the Raytheon campus.
"The trees are in, the sod is down," said Garland economic development director David Gwin. "Essentially, the paint is drying on it. You couldn't even believe you're at the same intersection."
What used to be was futuristic, too
For decades, Raytheon was all that was new about a growing Garland. The defense industry leader was Garland's largest industrial employer.
Raytheon told city officials they were leaving in 2014 for new quarters in the CityLine development in Richardson. Some 2,000 Raytheon employees started at CityLine in May 2016.
Gwin said Langford spent almost $1 million for asbestos abatement when taking down the 11 former Raytheon buildings in Garland — all built between 1957 and 1984.
"This is as exciting as it gets," Gwin said. "It took 14 months to get all of the pieces to come together. This is the heart of what is our industrial core."
