A unique gas station will open near RDU as a big one nearby temporarily closes
Four years ago, an unusual building began going up off Interstate 40 near Raleigh-Durham International Airport. It looked like a three-story office building but with a row of gas pumps out front under a long, curved canopy.
Now, after delays during the COVID-19 pandemic, the RDU Galleria will soon open to the public.
It is, indeed, a big gas station, with 16 pumps that will dispense Shell gasoline, and the upper two floors are being leased for offices.
But the ground floor is a large convenience store and food court, with coffee from Gloria Jean’s and food from Pizza Hut, Which Wich and Wayback Burgers. There’s seating for about 90 people inside and 60 outside, as well as a separate wine and beer bar with 24 taps.
Kishor Kanaria, whose family is creating RDU Galleria, says he knows of no other place that combines a gas station, food court and office building in one package.
“This is the first in the United States,” Kanaria says.
Kanaria said he expects to open in stages, beginning with the gas station, coffee bar and convenience store the second week of May.
The RDU Galleria will open just as the Sheetz convenience store nearby prepares to close. The company plans to demolish the existing 16-year-old building and build a reconfigured one that’s a third larger.
In an email, Sheetz spokesman Nick Ruffner said the new store will “include a restaurant-style experience with self-service kiosks, additional seating both inside and outside the store, a drive-thru, a new Tesla charging station and more.” The company hopes to reopen by the end of the year.
The closing of Sheetz will help the RDU Galleria during the early months, but Kanaria says he isn’t worried about what will happen when it reopens. Competition is good, he says, but he also thinks the bar, brand-name gas and restaurants and extensive seating will set his place apart from Sheetz.
“What we are offering is totally different than what they are offering,” he said.
Kanaria says he comes from a family of construction contractors and property developers in India that has built high-rise apartments, highways and other projects. The RDU Galleria is their first in the Triangle, but they own two other sites near the airport where they hope to build hotels in coming years.
The family bought the galleria site in 2017, and after designing the project and getting permits from the Town of Cary, broke ground in March 2019. Construction was slowed, Kanaria said, when COVID-19 prompted contractors to keep their workers at home. The sharp drop in air travel in 2020 also made finishing the project less urgent.
The RDU Galleria is designed to serve people going to and from the airport, whether to top the tanks in their rental cars or get a meal before a flight or while waiting to pick someone up. Kanaria says screens near the coffee bar will show the status of arriving and departing flights.
Meanwhile, Kanaria said brokers are negotiating with businesses to lease the office space upstairs. He said two companies were close to signing deals for most of the 17,000 square feet available.
