Rebirth for 7-Eleven after a year and a half Rebirth for 7-Eleven after a year and a half (December 10, 2003)

By Rebecca Wallace

Almanac Staff Writer

After a year and a half, the shelves are stocked and the Slurpee machine is humming again at the 7-Eleven at Oak Grove Avenue and Alma Street in Menlo Park.

The convenience store, destroyed by fire in June 2002, was bustling with workers last week getting the mart ready for its planned reopening on December 5. For franchise owner Kesh Patel, the experience was bittersweet.

"We've been down for 18 months," he said, standing near a rack of candy canes and striped toppers from the "Cat in the Hat" movie. "I'll be in the mall and bump into customers asking, 'When are you opening?'"

To make ends meet during the down time, Mr. Patel took a marketing job at Google. He's now looking forward to the returning customers, including neighborhood drop-ins and early-morning coffee-drinkers from the nearby Caltrain station.

Officials said the fire started after compressors from the 7-Eleven's refrigerator units radiated so much heat that ceiling joists were ignited, creating a three-alarm fire.

The delay in rebuilding the mart was blamed on a number of factors: city officials cited the need to bring the building up to code, and said property owner Milton Borg took time to respond to city questions during the permitting process. In turn, Mr. Borg blasted a city public art law that required him to spend 1 percent of his $520,000 roof and facade construction costs on placing a work of art on the property.

To comply with the law, Mr. Borg had an artist create an ornate metal bench, which he said would be installed in front of the 7-Eleven soon, likely by this week.

The new store will have a different floor layout and a top-of-the-line fountain machine with 18 flavors of drinks, Mr. Patel said.

The K-2 Ultimate Chinese Food & Bakery next door, also destroyed in the fire, will be replaced by a different Chinese restaurant with "Hawaiian overtones," Mr. Borg said. That restaurant is expected to open in a few weeks.

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