Three bears adding new location in Palmer

PALMER — Three Bears Alaska is putting a gas station on the corner of Arctic Avenue and the Glenn Highway with a car wash and convenience store, and are hoping to open the doors near the end of May or the beginning of June, depending on construction.

“A lot of people are happy about that going in there,” Three Bears Marketing Director Jim Kolb said.

The $6 million gas station will look similar to the Three Bears gas station in Houston, with oversized facilities for fueling stations and a small area for groceries. The car wash offers what Three Bears felt was necessary in the area. The small grocery store will also feature made to order pizzas and sandwiches, but Kolb says that the new gas station is designed to be convenient. The new convenience store, gas station and car wash will employ roughly a dozen people.

“I know we’ve been wanting a store in Palmer. We’ve got the Palmer four corners store right there and that’s our highest volume location,” Kolb said.

The total of the two buildings, convenience store and the Sudsy Salmon car and dog wash, will cover 12,000 square feet. The single bay car wash is capable of up to 100 cars per hour. The Sudsy Salmon will have two available dog wash stations.

With the high volume of traffic on some of Palmer’s most traveled thoroughfares, Kolb expects business to be booming once the Sudsy Salmon opens. Kolb said that Three Bears already feels like Palmer community. Even though the four corners location is outside of Palmer city limits, it still has a Palmer zip code and Three Bears participate in the Palmer Chamber, parades, and other community involvement activities.

Contact Frontiersman reporter Tim Rockey at tim.rockey@frontiersman.com