SERVICE STAR 9/14/07 8:09 AM Page 290

SERVICESTAR DEVELOPMENT CO.

SERVICESTAR is taking advantage of a

market shift toward lifestyle developments.

Grabbing the Opportunity

SERVICESTAR Development says it tries to ‘create a sense of place that’s vibrant, convenient, and a
place where people want to shop, be entertained and enjoy themselves.’

By Fernie Grace Tiflis 20-acre sites that other developers didn’t want, he notes.

F ormed through a partnership in 1996 between Shell

and Firestone, SERVICESTAR Development Co. ini-
tially was created to develop 50 automotive service
centers in Denver, Phoenix, Dallas, Chicago, Boston and
northern Virginia, as well as Florida and Atlanta. Its transi-
tion into a mixed-use developer was by accident, recalls
Andy Poremba, director of construction.
As an automotive center developer, the company created
a Shell Oil Co. motor fuel, convenience store and car wash
with Firestone’s tire sales, fast lube and automotive servic-
es. The challenge in this market, Poremba notes, is finding
real estate. “The initial need included a
SERVICESTAR Development three-acre, pad-ready site that is on a busy
Co. corner,” he states. “This type of real estate
HQ: Greenwood Village, Colo. is [in] very high demand because pharma-
Employees: 18
Services: Real estate developer cies and banks are competing for the
Andy Poremba, director of same sites.”
construction: “To be known as To adapt to the challenge, SERVICES-
a leader in mixed-use develop-
ments would be an achieve- TAR would create pad sites for its build-
ment.” to-suite automotive clients by buying 15- to
“These sites are too big for individual pad buyers, and too
small for larger development, such as lifestyle centers,”
Poremba says. “We would develop these [automotive centers
with] a neighborhood center that have 20,000 to 40,000
square feet of unanchored retail and pad ready out lots. So,
as the time went on, we eventually took on larger projects
as we were completing our program of automotive-related
development.”
One of the company’s last automotive center projects
was the 18-acre Heritage Meadows in Plainfield, Ill.
Completed in July 2007 after a year of construction, the
facility consists of a 43,000-square-foot retail space, two out-
lots, a Shell center with Dunkin Donuts and a Firestone. “It’s
doing really well,” Poremba says. “It’s already one of the
busiest Shell stations in the area.” The project’s budget was
approximately $12 million.
Concurrently, SERVICESTAR also built the Butterfield
Village Center in Aurora, Ill. It is similar to Heritage
Meadows; the only difference is a McDonalds is attached to
the Shell station. The company worked with Chicago-based

290 ■ CONSTRUCTION TODAY ■ OCTOBER 2007