A gas station on troubled corner seeks to expand. Neighbors aren’t thrilled
The owner of the Full Stop gas station on Lowry and Logan avenues is seeking to expand his store at this corner and add a restaurant and apartments. Photo by David Pierini
By David Pierini, Editor
Residents of the Jordan and Folwell neighborhoods have complained for years about gunshots, drug trafficking, prostitution, and dice games that happen out in the open at the corner of Lowry and Logan avenues.
Part of their frustration is directed at the Full Stop gas station at that intersection. Residents say the owner has done little to drive away the persistent gatherings of people from that corner.
The gathering of people takes place on a public sidewalk that runs alongside the building that faces Logan Avenue and is known to call out to gas station customers as they fill their tanks or walk toward the store.
Now, the owner is appealing to many of those residents to support his plans to expand his store with a new building that will include a restaurant, a four-unit apartment complex, and a design that will discourage loitering and criminal activity.
Belal Alsaid and developer Anthony Washington met with more than 30 people at a July 7 meeting of the Folwell Neighborhood Association to share his plans.
They were not greeted with the enthusiasm they hoped for.
“Once he was done presenting that, there was an outstanding amount of murmur in the room,” said Lucio Rubio, treasurer of the Folwell Neighborhood Association. “Everyone had something to say about it, and none of it was good.”
“The question was mainly, ‘If you weren’t able to handle the situation outside your building for the last six years, what makes you think this redevelopment is going to make it any better?’ It is a good concept, but it’s not like there’s trust that the owner would do the right thing by this.”
Calls to police over the years have done little to cool the corner. When Ward 4 Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw tried to get her colleagues to support a pilot program for drones as a first-response tool, she described the corner as an “open air drug market.”
Rubio, who lives near the gas station, said he believes a lucrative drug trade has made it attractive for a rotating cast of characters on that corner.
“It’s never the same people two days in a row,” he said.
Full Stop has also made headlines for several shootings. In 2019, a teenager was shot in the head and left paralyzed. He died nearly three years later. Two others were murdered in separate shootings in 2020. In 2022, four people were injured in a shooting near Full Stop. A 23-year-old man was shot in the back and killed in 2024.
Earlier this year, the City’s Bureau of Licensing “put on hold” licenses for tobacco, gas and grocery sales and has initiated an enforcement process, a City spokesperson said. Rubio said he called 311 to report the sale of single cigarettes from Full Stop. In a request for comment, the City spokesperson did not indicate whether the 311 call initiated the hold on Full Stop’s licenses.
“The community impact of the operations of the business as well as illicit activity on the corner are why we are in enforcement actions,” the spokesperson wrote in an email to North News.
Alsaid, who has owned Full Stop since 2011, said he has tried to deter the loitering with calls to police and the hiring of a security company. Likewise, some residents, including Rubio, recognize the challenges Alsaid faces.
“It is causing a lot of problems for us, and it’s a problem for the community,” Alsaid said. “We lose a lot of business because of this. I feel sometimes the police do a good job, but then they (the loiterers) come back. It’s not easily solved by me.”
Washington said Alsaid’s plans offer a chance to reset the relationship between residents and the business and bring change to that corner. Several residents talked over Washington during the meeting and were incredulous that an expansion will transform the corner.
Alsaid has applied for a demolition permit but has not submitted formal plans for approval. He anticipates the redevelopment will cost him $4 million.
Washington presented a rough drawing of an expanded site and said he wants further engagement with residents.
“We want something that’s different, and you need to be part of that,” Washington said. “Our intention here today is to say that we have a plan for a business owner who owns property and wants to do something that is an expansion… that ends up with a different potential impact on that corner.”
Alsaid plans to appeal if the city council votes to permanently revoke his license.
He may have an opening. In an email to Rubio, a licensing inspector said the department has urged Alsaid to “reach out to neighbors to try and repair his standing with the community.”
Alsaid said he is taking those steps and hopes residents will give his idea a chance to “clean up the area.”