Business Beat: QT gas station heads to former Red Lobster location in Longview | For Subscribers Only

A new QT gas station is expected to replace the vacant Red Lobster building at McCann Road and Loop 281 in Longview.

Red Lobster closed in Longview in May 2024 as the chain was struggling nationwide. Its former Longview location has been vacant and for sale since then. News-Journal archives show the restaurant opened at that spot in 1981. 

This month, R.B. Sandrini Farms, described as a “new” convenience store developer, applied for a development permit for that location.

City Planner Angela Choy said filings the city has received show the former restaurant will be torn down to make way for the QT gas station and convenience store. The address there is 3515 McCann Road.

QT recently opened its first Longview location at Eastman Road and Interstate 20.

The nearest gas station on Loop 281 in that area is at Bill Owens Parkway, and there’s also a gas station at McCann Road and Hawkins Parkway.

Hydroponics business

Big summer gardens, water sprinklers and farms are a typical part of the East Texas landscape. Darrell Barnes, though, plans to bring a different method of growing vegetables and fruits to Longview — hydroponics.

Hydroponics is “the technique of growing plants using a water-based nutrient solution rather than soil,” according to the National Agricultural Library.

Barnes is working to start a hydroponics growing business on Pearl Street on property his family owns near the new Longview Police Department building and the Edible Art bakery on South Street. 

The city’s Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council have approved a zoning change for the property at 414, 416 and 418 Pearl St. from multi-family to light commercial to allow for the hydroponics-based growing operation. 

Barnes told the commission he would grow plants in nine, 40-foot-long shipping containers. The containers would be 7-feet-high by 8-feet wide.

“Everything is self-contained when you do hydroponics,” he said, “growing fruits and vegetables in water without using soil.” 

He’ll have two 500-gallon fish tanks that hold tilapia. The water will be drawn from the tanks so that it also provides fertilizer for the plants, similar to the way that Native Americans would plant seeds with a dead fish.

Water that the plants don’t use will be recirculated to the fish tanks. The temperature will be computer-controlled. 

“We will be able to grow seven days a week, 24 hours a day, all year long,” Barnes said. “Weather doesn’t affect us because it’s temperature-controlled on the inside.”

The trailers allow for plants to be grown on vertical structures, which he said will make it possible to grow three times as much as if he were growing plants in dirt.

This kind of growing method will keep prices down for fruits and vegetables, he said, and he’ll be able to bring low-cost fruits and vegetables to Longview. The exact method he would use to sell must still be finalized.

Barnes, who was born in Longview, said he previously lived in California, where he successfully grew plans in this way. 

Barnes, who described himself as an inventor, is also working on creating a system to generate his own, reliable source of electricity at the Pearl Street site using a “Heron’s Fountain,” which is a hydraulic machine that creates a continually flowing fountain. 

“I’m really ecstatic,” Barnes said. “This is something that I’m trying to do here to help out the economy and the people. It’s going to make money. I’m not worried about that. I just like creating things.”

— Business Beat appears Wednesday. If you have items for the column, email to newsroom@newsjournal.com; mail to Business Section, Longview News-Journal, P.O. box 1792, Longview, TX 75606; or call (903) 237-7744.