An old toll plaza along E-470 that was once a support facility for toll booth workers is currently empty but will serve as a gas station and convenience store in the future, south of East Jewell Avenue. The toll road authority has narrowed down the list of developers for the project to two and will choose a finalist later this month. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)

AURORA | The planned gas station and convenience store on E-470 is inching closer to reality.

Toll road officials announced late last month that they had narrowed their decision down to two developers: 7-Eleven and Parker-based Chiti, Inc.

An old toll plaza along E-470 that was once a support facility for toll booth workers is currently empty but will serve as a gas station and convenience store in the future, south of East Jewell Avenue. The toll road authority has narrowed down the list of developers for the project to two and will choose a finalist later this month. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)
An old toll plaza along E-470 that was once a support facility for toll booth workers is currently empty but will serve as a gas station and convenience store in the future, south of East Jewell Avenue. The toll road authority has narrowed down the list of developers for the project to two and will choose a finalist later this month. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)

Stan Koniz, E-470’s director of finance, said the two groups will submit their plans by Sept. 23 for redeveloping the old toll plaza at E-470 and East Jewell Avenue.

The two firms submitted their proposals to E-470 in July and Koniz said he hopes whichever developer is chosen is able to open the new facility sometime next year.

The toll road has seen a steady increase of motorists in recent years. In August E-470 officials said traffic was up 5 percent through the first six months of 2013.

“The increase in traffic, coupled with a toll increase effective on January 1, resulted in an increase in toll revenues from $54.1 million to $59.7 million,” the authority said in a statement.

But, despite the steady rise in traffic, toll officials say they are still lacking a service station that is easy for motorists to reach, without having to exit.

The E-470 Public Highway Authority asked developers last spring to submit plans to build and operate a gas station and convenience store adjacent to the roadway — close enough that drivers don’t have to leave E-470 and pay another toll if they need gas.

Today, the closest gas station to the highway is a 7-Eleven near the East Quincy Avenue exit, but it’s about a mile off the road and requires drivers to exit.

E-470’s plan calls for a gas station with convenience store at the old toll plaza south of East Jewell Avenue. The location has 15 acres of developable land, as well as a 5,600-square-foot building that has sat empty since E-470 went to all license plate tolls in 2009 and rendered the five toll plazas largely obsolete.

Koniz has said the site is ideal because it already has easy access from the toll road and won’t require the developer to cut new roads to get motorists from the highway to the gas pumps. And the developer can refurbish the existing building instead of having to build a new one.

According to the International Bridge, Tunnel, and Turnpike Association, the convenience store on E-470 will likely be the first of its kind for a commuter toll road. Other convenience stores along toll roads have been located on roads that serve interstate traffic, not roads like E-470, which serves primarily local motorists.

E-470 officials have said they hope to launch similar projects at their other toll plazas. If all goes well at the plaza near Jewell, they will likely look at redeveloping the plaza north of Interstate 70 next.