Friday, June 26, 2015

The final day of one of Bethesda's last gas stations (Photos)

The Shell gas station at Old Georgetown Road and Woodmont Avenue closed permanently yesterday. Roped off to vehicle traffic, it and the law office next door await final approval for demolition from Montgomery County. Inside the station's convenience store structure, empty cigarette racks await removal.

Both will be replaced by a small TD Bank building, with drive-thru facilities. As I reported ten days ago, the closure of this station leaves only 4 places to buy gas in downtown Bethesda. One of those, the Sunoco at Battery Lane and Wisconsin Avenue, is slated for redevelopment in the coming years, as well.













21 comments:

Anonymous said...

#rethinkTD - let's boycott TD Bank for this atrocious use of space in a growing downtown area so close to mass transit!

Anonymous said...

#RethinkTDBank! What a waste of prime real estate. Doesn't even have to be a high rise building, but anything more than a single story bank with surface parking and a drive thru.

I will never bank with TD.

The Christopher Condos should be ashamed to have support this waste of space. The planning board and council should make sure that such a waste will not be approved in the future.

Anonymous said...

#RethinkTDBank

I used to love them but now they are on my poop list. What a waste. Spreading the word among my millenial peers to boycott TD Bank.

Anonymous said...

#rethinktdbank!!!!!!! Never using TD Bank again. Going to cancel my account this weekend.

Anonymous said...

#RethinkTDBank The only thing we need less than a mural of NY is another bank.

Ditch the brick and mortar. Ally.com and capitalone360.com. Great interest rates!

Anonymous said...

#RethinkTDBank!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No more supporting this bank that doesn't support our community. Boooo to this project.

Anonymous said...

#rethinkTDbank

Let's start a movement to stop using TD Bank

Anonymous said...

#RethinkTDBank

TD Bank Racism: http://www.recordonline.com/article/20150617/NEWS/150619395
TD Bank not securing website: http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/23/technology/bank-websites-encryption/
TD Bank Aiding Ponzi Scheme: http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/print-edition/2012/05/25/controversial-td-bank-form-was-clear.html?page=all

Anonymous said...

Glad to see the gas station get redeveloped, but this new tiny building is atrocious. Everyone knows it's just going to end up in a landfill within the decade; what a waste. Just build the highrise with ground floor TD bank now, instead.

Anonymous said...

Yes!!! I'm saddened it'll be decades before this space gets used to its potential when the demand is there now.

Steve D. said...

Farewell Crown. Not the most convenient location for getting gas, but a cool old school station that made a great contrast with the bland high rises around it.

Anonymous said...

Expensive gas, but it took Giant gas points.

Robert Dyer said...

Does anyone know why the landowner wants to wait to redevelop? If they'd been ready to go, they surely would have gotten high density zoning in the new plan. How will it be more profitable to wait?

Anonymous said...

Who is the landowner?

Anonymous said...

Listen the reason this bank NEEDS to be built here is because the next closes bank is very far away. According to google maps, yep, I am right the next bank is(cough) across the street(cough). Never mind nothing to see here, carry on.

Anonymous said...

As much as I hate banks, I'd rather have one than a smelly old gas station with street people buying candy and cigarettes and demanding to wash your windshield at all hours.

Anonymous said...

Can you help and ask? You seem to have a lot of connections.

Anonymous said...

#rethinktdbank
I thought they were going to do one at the old BP on Wisconsin too?

Anonymous said...

Glossy magazine: June 25, 6:12 PM

Dyer: June 26, "7:00 AM" [10:00 AM EDT]

Advantage: Glossy magazine

Steve D. said...

"Anonymous said...
As much as I hate banks, I'd rather have one than a smelly old gas station with street people buying candy and cigarettes and demanding to wash your windshield at all hours.

5:46 PM"

Sounds like they're trying to support the local economy, so props for that. We just need to help them move from cigarettes to gum.

Anonymous said...

As gas stations disappear, so do places where one can by cigarettes. Interesting side-effect.