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Truck stop to close
Servicetown, a Stafford County landmark for 40 years, will close by the end of the monthDate published: 4/16/2005 By CATHY JETT Stafford's Servicetown to shut down April 27 Trucker Don White couldn't believe his ears as he drove to Servicetown Travel Plaza in Stafford County on Thursday. "Say it isn't so," he said while paying his bill inside the nearly 40-year-old truck stop on U.S. 17. "Tell me you aren't closing." Lucky Russell, who's worked the cash registers at Servicetown since 1967, confirmed the news. "April 27," she said, "is our last day." White, who was hauling a 105,000-pound excavator for Yarbrough Transfer in Winston-Salem, N.C., was stunned. "This is the last place for truckers hauling oversized equipment to stop before getting on [Interstate] 495 or 695," he said. "It will be sorely missed." Servicetown sits on approximately 17 acres just off the Interstate 95 interchange with bustling Warrenton Road, as this stretch of U.S. 17 is known. It's bordered by a McDonald's and the Blue Beacon Truck Wash on one side and a Chevron gas station on the other. Days Inn is just across the highway. The site, which has a vast parking lot that can accommodate 200 trucks, has caught the eye of a number of potential buyers over the years. One finally made an undisclosed offer that has been accepted. It includes honoring the lease for the Fredericksburg Truck Center, a big-truck garage behind Servicetown, said J.P. Eck, who co-owns the truck stop with two other Fredericksburg businessmen. His partners are Jeffrey Scott, owner and president of Advantage Business Brokerage, and William Johnson, a commercial real-estate appraiser and developer. "We've been very successful here," Eck said. "We're not selling because independent truck stops are a dying breed. The timing was right because it was a real-estate deal." He declined to say who the buyer is or how much the property is going for because the sale won't be final until April 28. But Jon Eitel, who was working at the fuel sales counter with Russell, told White that there were rumors Servicetown would be replaced by a strip mall, Wal-Mart or SuperTarget. "That's exactly what this country needs," White groused. "Another cotton-pickin' Wal-Mart." Bob Carter, Stafford's assistant director of economic development, said the Servicetown property is zoned urban commercial and would be a good location for a hotel, restaurants and retail stores.
Date published: 4/16/2005
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