Business & Tech

Gas City Auctions Off Stations for $135 Million to Pay Back Debts

The Frankfort-based company sells its 50 stations, including its Romeoville location, to 14 buyers as part of Chapter 11 filing. Its future as a business is uncertain.

Gas City's 50 service stations and truck stops were auctioned off for $135 million Monday as part of the company's bankruptcy protection filing, leaving the future of the Frankfort-based business uncertain.

Fourteen different buyers purchased the stations, and multiple bids were placed on most of the properties, said Daniel Zazove, the Chicago attorney representing Gas City. In the Chicago area, the stations include locations in Romeoville, Frankfort, Mokena, New Lenox, Shorewood, Oswego, Darien and Joliet. Stations elsewhere in the state, as well as in Indiana, Arizona and Florida, also were auctioned off.

 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago on Oct. 26. Court documents list company assets of between $50 and $100 million and debts of $100 to $500 million.

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The sale of these stations will go toward paying the money Gas City owes, Zazove said, but it isn't enough to cover the entire debt. 

What this sale means for Gas City as a company is undetermined.

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"Well, when the sale closes they won’t have anymore gas stations," Zazove said. "We’ll have to decide what we do when we conclude the sales. ... It will be a while before the future of Gas City is decided."

A Gas City spokeswoman who refused to give her name would not comment on the auction or what the effect the sale would have on the company. 

The auction will be finalized in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago on April 13. Zazove said it could take 45 days or more to close the individual sales of the proporties.

"Most of the people there seemed very pleased with the results of the auction," he said.


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