A new Kanku's Express is being built on Brainerd Road.Name: Kanku's Express
Location: Former location on Brainerd Road of Regions Bank and Central Park restaurant.
Status: Workers are pouring the slab and finishing the interior of the building. Crews have already buried the gas tanks that will hold the fuel for Chattanooga's vehicles. The store will be complete by Thanksgiving.
Price: $1.9 million
Features: The 3,400-square-foot Kanku's Express will offer food, fresh coffee and the usual snacks and oddities that typically are found in Chattanooga-area service stations. Nine pumping stations with 18 pumps will offer three mixes of ethanol-infused gasoline, said owner Vijay Chaudhari. E85, which, as the name implies, is made up of 85 percent ethanol, will be less expensive than regular gasoline because of government subsidies, Chaudhari said. He speculates that his will be the only gas station in Chattanooga that offers E85, though the special fuel can only be used in certain cars. The second type is the regular blend of 10 percent ethanol, which can be used in most vehicles. And finally, he'll offer regular, unadulterated gasoline with no ethanol whatsoever. "We're going to give people a choice," Chaudhari said.