By Jennifer Edwards
The Cincinnati Enquirer

EAST END - The Koka Coffeehouse on Eastern Avenue next to the Pendleton Heritage Center typifies what can be done with old gas station sites.

"That is going to be a tremendous asset," says Brian Breneman, one of the coffeehouse owners and president of the East End Area Council.

Deborah Hughes, Brian and Marianne Breneman, and Devo Ihonde are the co-owners of a new coffeehouse on Eastern Ave. in the East End called Koka Coffeehouse. (Steven M. Herppich photo)

"To an extent, it will put us back on the map. We are going to prove that this makes the East End a viable place to do business at the retail level."

Old gas station sites from the East End to Hyde Park to Montgomery are increasingly being reclaimed for new businesses.

Credit, in part, goes to federal Environmental Protection Agency rules in the 1990s that required a gas station's underground storage tanks to be updated or replaced to prevent leaks.

The new regulations scared some owners into thinking they would get stuck with big bills. As a result, says Andrew Tschampa of the EPA's Chicago office, thousands of gas stations were abandoned across the country.

To spark redevelopment if the sites weren't already being cleaned up by former owners or others, EPA and the Ohio Department of Commerce began to offer grants for cleanups, which average $127,000.

"Quite frankly, the property is only lightly or moderately contaminated," Tschampa said. "It's not as expensive as once thought and there still is marketability in the property."

Later this year, the U.S. EPA is planning to hold a joint conference with the Ohio Department of Commerce to discuss gas station cleanups for developers.

"We want to get over the stigma that the land is contaminated and will be millions of dollars to clean up," Tschampa said.

In Ohio, 19,022 filling stations have been cleaned of their tanks in recent years, federal figures show. Another 3,797 Ohio gas stations are on a waiting list to be cleaned.

New East End business

Koka Coffeehouse is the brainchild of a group of longtime residents who say they were tired of driving miles for basic services.

It's the first new service business in this neighborhood in years, says Breneman. He's in direct competition with a Starbucks store nearby on Columbia Parkway in Columbia Tusculum.

Since opening two weeks ago, business has been steady, says Breneman's wife, Marianne.

"A lot of people remember when it was a gas station from way back when," she said. "They are thrilled to see us here and like the alternative to Columbia Parkway. A lot of people have said they have been watching our progress for a couple of months."

Montgomery gateway

In Montgomery, city officials purchased a triangular-shaped parcel in 2002 that sits at the entrance to the downtown at Montgomery and Cooper roads and Main Street.

The site formerly held two gas stations and a bank building. Today, the buildings are gone and contamination from the days as gas stations are gone, said Frank Davis, Montgomery's community development director.

The city envisions a 25,000-to 30,000-square-foot mixed use building as a gateway into the historic downtown. It would hold underground parking, stores, offices and perhaps a restaurant and condominiums.

Two developers, Great Traditions and Gateway Development, are the finalists, he said.

Construction could begin as soon as this year.

Anderson shopping site

A Shell gas station adjacent to the Forest Hills Kroger along Beechmont Avenue near Five Mile Road closed in January. The former owner has removed the tanks and, soon, the parcel will convert into a strip shopping center.

The township's zoning commission recently approved plans for an 11,220-square-foot retail building. It has the potential for eight tenants but some of the stores could be combined, records show.

The developers, Core Resources Inc. of Anderson Township, don't have tenants yet or a construction start date.

But with more than 40,000 vehicles a day traveling Beechmont Avenue and the nearby redevelopment of the former Beechmont Mall, interest from potential tenants has been brisk, says Paul Kitzmiller of Core, a developer and construction management firm.

Ohio's former gas stations cleaned up

As of 1998, nationally there were about 2 million active gas tanks. About 1.2 million tanks have been removed since then.

On average, a gas stations has two to three tanks.

As of September 2003, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, there were 25,049 active underground gasoline storage tanks in Ohio out of a nationwide total of 682,870.

•  Number of cleanups completed: 19,022 in Ohio out of a nationwide total of 303,120

•  Backlog of cleanups to be completed: 3,797 out of a nationwide total of 136,265Source: U.S. EPA

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E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com