A new gas station and convenience store is being planned for a highly traveled intersection in northeast Ocala, adding to the ongoing commercial expansion in the immediate area.
The project, named Sunstop #360 Ocala, is slated for development at 2540 NE 35th Street, situated directly at the intersection of NE 25th Avenue and NE 35th Street.
The development site sits just down the road from Pearl Britain Plaza, a retail hub that has welcomed several new businesses recently. Both are positioned near multiple expanding residential neighborhoods.
The 2.14-acre parcel is owned by Southwest Georgia Oil Company Inc, which purchased the property for $939,000 from SR Investments and Mark Debolt in August 2023. The Georgia-based company, operating out of Bainbridge, initiated the local permitting process by filing a major site plan application with Marion County growth services in late January.
According to the official submittal documents prepared by local firm Mastroserio Engineering, Inc., the scope of the project involved the complete demolition of an existing commercial site to make way for the new automotive and retail footprint.
The finished facility will feature a modern, one-story convenience store and a large fuel canopy housing 10 multi-product dispensers. To accommodate visitors, the layout designates 23 on-site parking spaces, which county staff confirmed satisfies local commercial requirements.
The civil plans also incorporate an engineered stormwater drainage retention area along the western perimeter of the property to handle local runoff.
The major site plan is currently moving through successive rounds of county review as planners and engineers ensure the design aligns with regional guidelines.
To facilitate the layout, the developer has submitted multiple waiver requests to the Marion County Development Review Committee. Among these is a request to pay an assessed fee of $13,824 into the municipal sidewalk fund in lieu of building isolated sidewalk stretches along the property frontages, noting that the contribution allows the county to build connected pedestrian networks elsewhere.
Additionally, the applicant is seeking a waiver to defer a right-turn lane on NE 35th Street that was originally triggered by the project’s traffic impact evaluation. The developer argues that constructing a standalone turn lane at this time would be an inefficient use of resources because Marion County has an upcoming public road-widening project already programmed for that exact stretch of NE 35th Street.
Building a temporary lane now would result in it being torn out and reconstructed during the county’s imminent project, though the owner has stated a willingness to execute a financial agreement to compensate the county for the eventual turn lane costs to protect public interests.
In recent years, Pearl Britain Plaza has welcomed several new vendors, including Jersey Mike’s and Breakfast Station.
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