Dive Brief:
- Stinker Stores has sold 12 convenience stores in Colorado to multiple buyers for an undisclosed amount, according to an announcement from advisory services firm Corner Realty, which coordinated the deal.
- Convenience retailer Murphy USA acquired four of the locations, while the rest were sold to “smaller local companies,” Greg Penman, vice president of retail brokerage at Corner Realty, said in a statement to C-Store Dive.
- Stinker divested these locations as part of its “portfolio optimization efforts,” in which the company aims to “sharpen its focus on core assets and capitalize its upcoming development projects,” according to the announcement.
Dive Insight:
Stinker’s latest divestiture comes about nine months after the Idaho-based convenience retailer made these sites available for purchase. At the time, the company was selling 13 of its stores in Colorado. According to Penman, the final store is dealing with a zoning issue.
Nearly all of the 12 stores recently sold are in the greater Denver area, with the only one outside the region located roughly 240 miles west in Clifton. Stinker initially acquired them in a 40-store purchase from Bradley Petroleum in 2017. Although it made "significant improvements” to the sites in the years since, the company has now sold them to focus more on its core assets, such as its larger, food-focused store design.
The 12 locations range from 375 square feet to nearly 3,500 square feet, according to Corner Realty’s listing. Meanwhile, Stinker’s large-format stores span up to 10,00 square feet.
“Stinker Stores is determined to be the leader in our trade areas utilizing our latest store format, serving this and the next generation of food and convenience customers in the Rocky Mountains,” said Nancy Jones, chairman of Stinker Stores.
Murphy USA’s new stores add to the company’s already established base in Denver, where it has roughly 30 locations, according to its website. During the company’s third-quarter earnings call in October, Donald Smith, interim CFO and treasurer, said this acquisition was “an opportunistic, small scale real estate play in an attractive market where we want a bigger presence.”
