GUILDERLAND — The Lukoil gas station at the corner of Route 146 and School Road in Guilderland Center is keeping its gas pumps but doing away with its service bays in order to expand its convenience store.

The property is owned by Bruce Halsdorf and the Guilderland Food Mart is run by Sarbjeet Sahota, according to paperwork submitted to the town as Sahoa applied for a variance and a special-use permit to expand the back of the building.

After a public hearing during which no members of the public spoke, both were unanimously granted by the town’s zoning board of appeals on Dec. 4.

Consulting engineer Bill Hennessy told the board that the current building is approximately 1,775 square feet and an additional 550 feet will be added.

“We’re proposing to eliminate the service station component and only keep the convenience store,” Hennessy told the board.

The added space is needed, in part, for coolers for beverages, he said. Plans for the expansion show a “beer cave” taking up one corner between two coolers.

Trees and bushes will be planted as green space is expanded and fencing along the west and south property lines will be added, Hennessy said.

Although only 13 parking spaces are required, 14 are planned, said Hennessy, adding, “and that does not even include the canopy spaces that are often considered parking spaces.”

The hours will remain the same, from 5 a.m to 11 p.m., with two employees on site.

The look of the front of the building will remain much the same with the two garage doors in place as “more like an architectural feature now,” said Hennessy.

Limited food preparation is anticipated. “We are proposing breakfast sandwiches,” said Hennessy.

But there will be no seating areas, either inside or out, he said.

Zoning board member Sharon Cupoli asked if kids would congregate there before school; Guilderland High School is located just down School Road from the gas station.

“I did when I went to school there 50 years ago,” said Hennessy.

The Lukoil station was built at the site of Empie’s Market, a long-time community gathering place in Guilderland Center. The Empie family lived over the store.

The current business was established in 1972, the zoning board’s chairwoman, Elizabeth Lott, said

Lott noted that the station was “a prior nonconforming use” and the use is “consistent with the predominant character of the area; also the addition would not substantially increase traffic and the business is already connected to townwater and wastewater utilities.

Therefore, the board decided there would be no significant environmental impacts with the new addition.