Casey’s General Stores plans to build its first non-fuel convenience store at 3121 Forest Ave. in Des Moines. Rendering special to the Business Record

 Seventy percent of consumer trips to a Casey’s General Store are for non-fuel items, officials with the convenience store chain said in January during the annual 2020 Investor’s Day presentation. So it’s not surprising that the Ankeny-based convenience store plans to accelerate growth of its non-fuel formats.

Plans include opening the first Iowa non-fuel location at 3121 Forest Ave. in Des Moines. The Des Moines City Council this week approved setting a public hearing to discuss a request to change the property’s zoning to allow for the construction of a 3,400-square-foot store that would sell food, beverages, alcohol and other retail items. The hearing is scheduled for Nov. 9.

“Casey’s future plans include non-fuel stores as a different format to meet the needs of the community,” Casey’s spokeswoman Katie Petru wrote in an email. “We remain focused on opening the right stores in the right locations.”

Earlier this year, Casey’s officials presented plans to build a non-fuel store near Eighth Street and Ashworth Road in West Des Moines. Residents raised concerns about the amount of traffic the proposed store would generate.

Petru, in the email, wrote that the “location at Ashworth is not moving forward.”

Neighborhood Development Corp. owns the Forest Avenue parcel, which over the years has been a gasoline service station and auto repair shop. The property is valued at $155,000, according to the Polk County assessor.