A new gas station and convenience store could be coming to a major Market Street intersection.

Circle K submitted plans for a 5,200-square-foot convenience store and eight fuel pumps at 4500 Market St., a vacant site at the corner of Market Street and Kerr Avenue, late last month. The proposed convenience store is one of several currently in the works across Wilmington.

The Circle K is proposed on a corner tract adjacent to the Food Lion-anchored Market Plaza shopping center. The site was occupied until around 2017 by Hardee’s, according to Mike Prevatte, the shopping center’s owner. The building that housed the restaurant was razed a few years after Hardee's left the site, Prevatte wrote in an email to the Business Journal.

The shopping center’s other tenants include Fit4life Health Club, an N.C. Department of Motor Vehicles license plate agency, a Sherwin-Williams paint store, a beauty supply store and a Honduran and Mexican restaurant.

“We are looking forward to having a vibrant business on the corner to complement Market Plaza,” Prevatte wrote about the proposed Circle K. 

The site is currently zoned as a regional business district, which means the gas station plans can move forward without a rezoning. As of Thursday afternoon, the plans hadn’t been scheduled for technical review – the next step in the development process. 

Plans submitted to the city of Wilmington show the project would include a fuel canopy along with 17 car parking spaces and eight bike spaces.

This isn’t the only Circle K in the works inside Wilmington’s city limits. In July, the Wilmington City Council approved a rezoning for another 5,200-square-foot Circle K convenience store and gas station on nearly two acres at 1618 Dawson St., the site of a former Walgreens.

Other gas station chains have also expanded their footprints in the Port City in recent months. 

Pennsylvania-based chain Sheetz opened its first store in Wilmington in July, and at the corner of Market Street and Birchwood Drive, a 7-Eleven-branded convenience store and gas station held its grand opening in October.

Earlier this year, officials from the Pennsylvania-based chain Wawa announced they’re eyeing 10 sites for new locations across the Cape Fear region, ranging from Hampstead and Wilmington to Leland, Supply and Shallotte.