Not all 7-Eleven remodeling jobs will go to local firms

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Jim Leonard says remodeling contracts for 7-Eleven Inc. would be a convenient job for his commercial contracting company.

Having reviewed the 7-Eleven remodeling plans already, he said the contracts aren’t too complicated and would be easy work for his six employees.

But so far, the Slurpee machine is coming up empty for his company, Troutman-based J.R. Leonard Construction.

“We have bid on two of the stores in the area and weren’t awarded those bids,” Leonard said. “But we will keep trying.”

In February, the convenience store giant said it had begun buying about 50 Sam’s Mart stores in the Charlotte metro area to convert them to 7-Elevens.

Leonard is among local contractors hoping to land some of the contracts. That’s why he was annoyed that some of the initial six stores have gone to a contractor from outside North Carolina. Commercial contractor BiG Services, headquartered in Crawford, Ga., was the winning bidder for six of the stores.

“We bid on these projects in late February, and I expect these jobs will be finished quickly,” said Matt Gruetter, project manager for BiG. He said the company specializes in national construction contracts for large convenience store chains, such as The Pantry and Kangaroo. The company has done construction work for 7-Elevens in Texas, Florida, Virginia and New Jersey, he said.

Leonard wanted to win contracts for two 7-Eleven locations at 12710 S. Tryon St. and 8315 Steele Creek Road, both in Charlotte.

Those two are among about 55 Charlotte-area convenience stores that will be converted from other chains to the 7-Eleven brand over the next three months, according to Jon Sorkin, senior project manager for New York-based Lend Lease, the construction-management company handling the construction contract for Dallas-based 7-Eleven.

“We have bid out all of the work for about 12 stores so far, but anyone who wants to bid must prequalify,” Sorkin said. “We are working with some national contractors, but we have some from the Charlotte-area.”

Sorkin said Lend Lease is encouraging contractors to work with local subcontractors on each job.

For the sites at South Tryon Street and Steele Creek Road, Leonard’s company lost to a local firm, Charlotte-based commercial contractor YTM Construction.

“We were thrilled to get these two jobs,” said YTM Chief Financial Officer Carl Senn. “It is exciting stuff, and we’re going to try and bid on more because our company focuses on convenience store work.”

According to permits issued by Mecklenburg County, the construction costs for the 7-Eleven stores will be $85,000 each.

Started 10 years ago, YTM has done projects in Charlotte for Sunoco and WilcoHess gasoline stations. Senn said his company doesn’t have a start date for the two 7-Eleven projects yet, but he expects to only spend about a week on each job.

“All of these convenience store projects operate on the same guiding principle: Get the project done and get the cash register rolling,” he said.

Senn said it didn’t bother him that out-of-state companies like BiG were profiting from the Charlotte-area 7-Eleven projects.

“With 55 stores, there’s just no way that one company – from Charlotte or otherwise – can handle the whole project,” he said. “Nobody in town is able to get 55 stores done.”

Senn said it would be hypocritical for him to complain about out-of-state companies getting the 7-Eleven work.

“We have licenses in eight other states,” he said. “We work outside of North Carolina. So how can I say it bothers me when other contractors come and work in our neighborhood?”

Leonard says he at least has other work to keep him busy, so he won’t be sitting around watching his inbox for an email from 7-Eleven.

“We have 14 other projects right now that we’re waiting to hear back on from various clients,” he said.

His company is also building a new locally owned convenience store in Statesville and remodeling another convenience store in Cornelius.

“It is sometimes discouraging to see the work going to companies from out of state, like BiG,” he said. “They are our direct competitor on this. But we think we have a good chance to win some of the other 7-Eleven bids.”

BAUGHMAN can be reached at [email protected].