The former gas station, located at 2792 Wilmington Road, was seen being ripped to shreds on Wednesday, Dec. 7 as construction crews with Clayton-based company Bach and Co. continued their demolition of the site, which began two days earlier. Also being destroyed were at least two long-term rental apartments that were attached to the back side of the gas station, according to village Code Enforcement Officer Darci Whitney.

Village Code Enforcement Officer Mike Orticelle said that the 7-Eleven corporation hired engineers to assess the building, which was deemed unsafe after inspection. He said there were cracks in the foundation, and the corporation decided the gas station wasn’t worth rehabilitating. Whitney said 7-Eleven asked the tenants of the attached apartments to relocate before the demolition, but she said one of the apartments’ tenants had a hard time finding housing.

According to property tax records for the former gas station, 7-Eleven assumed tax payments on the property in 2019. Before that, according to the records, it was owned by Sunoco Inc, starting in 2002. Doty said he heard that when 7-Eleven’s engineers came in to inspect the building, they were surprised its condition was so bad.

Orticelle said the main damage to the foundation was near the car wash, and he said the village didn’t have oversight over such inspections. He thought that inspection requirements for a store like that would be set by the state, and that the responsibility to fulfill them would lie with the property owners.

“I don’t know how this fell through the cracks for so long,” he said. “I guess nobody paid attention.”

Frederick Bach Jr., Bach and Co’s project manager, was on the construction site Dec. 7. He said his crew is completely demolishing the gas station, removing all of the fuel systems and construction debris there, and grading the site with clean fill.

“It’ll be a shovel-ready site when we complete,” Bach said.

On Dec. 7, Bach said his crew still had “quite a bit” of demolishing left to do, like destroying the car washes in the rear of the building. Bach expects to finish work at the site about a week after New Year’s Day — just before the FISU Winter World University Games begin in Lake Placid on Jan. 12.