UPDATE: Buchanan Switching Gears at 61 Stations

CHICAGO -- Buchanan Energy is putting 61 gas stations up for sale in the Chicago and St. Louis area as part of its plan to shed the company-owned portion of its locations.

"Buchanan Energy is changing the channel of trade on these stores from company-owned, dealer-operated sites to dealer-owned, dealer-operated sites and will provide fuel to the buyers under a long-term fuel supply agreement," a spokesman for NRC Realty & Capital Advisors told CSNews Online.

Buchanan tapped NRC to handle the sale of the 61 locations, consisting of 38 ExxonMobil-branded locations in the greater Chicago area and 23 BP-branded locations in the greater St. Louis area, as CSNews Online reported in a breaking news report this morning.

Most of the sites, according to NRC, have full-sized convenience stores, some of which are branded under Buchanan’s Bucky’s banner and all of the sites sell branded gas. The Bucky's c-store locations will be sold debranded with no brand on the actual c-store building.

However, this does not mark the Buchanan's exit from the retail business. "Buchanan Energy will continue operations of their stations not included in this sale and is not exiting the retail gas station market," NRC noted.

The Chicagoland stations are located in Arlington Heights, Aurora, Bartlett, Batavia, Bloomingdale, Bolingbrook, Buffalo Grove, Carol Stream, Deerfield, Des Plaines, Downers Grove, Elk Grove Village, Glendale Heights, Glenview, Highland Park, Highwood, Hoffman Estates, Itasca, Libertyville, Lombard, Naperville, Northbrook, Oswego, Palatine, Rolling Meadows, Roselle, Schaumburg, Streamwood, Warrenville and Woodridge.

The St. Louis-area stations are in the city itself, as well as in Cool Valley, Ellisville, Webster Groves and Wildwood in Missouri, and in the Illinois towns of Belleville, Cahokia, Edwardsville, Fairview Heights, Pontoon Beach and Washington Park.