Cape & Islands News

Christy Mihos does it again, big time

Christy's of Cape Cod becomes Hess Mini-marts

The Christy's on Route 28 and Yarmouth Road in Hyannis was already being changed over to a Hess this morning during the snow storm. cc2day photo.

Stores closed today to renovate, Three still to be run by Mihos

By Walter Brooks

The price at today's closing is said to be well over that which was rumored last week, and Christy's of Cape Cod stores have been purchased by the Hess Corporation.The twelve stores will be closed today while Hess renovates the sites to their format.

While the cancer surgeries on Mr. Mihos took their toll in 2007, he has made a recovery, but he apparently decided he should take some time "to smell the roses."

"We are happy that Hess will bring its buying power with over 1400 stores on the east coast to our Cape Cod Customers and the fact that Hess drills for oil, refines it and sells it at much lower price."
                  - Christy Mihos

The sale of this popular chain of gas stations and mini-marts doesn't mean that Christy Mihos is retiring, and he still may run for Massachusetts governor in 2010.

Hess taking over present stores, Christy continues to develop more stores

Hess will also be taking the Buzzards Bay store recently permitted by Christy's after many years in the permit process. 

Christy said, "We are happy that Hess will bring its buying power with over 1,400 stores on the east coast to our Cape Cod Customers and the fact that Hess drills for oil, refines it and sells it at much lower prices to the customer (than an independent dealer)."

Most of Christy's personnel will move to Hess according to Mr. Mihos.  Christy himself will continue to permit, develop and operate the new stores in Dennis and Chatham which have not as yet been converted to the Christy's format.

Further, Christy's will continue to work to open the location at the Bourne Rotary at the old Texaco station near the CanalSide project. 

$uccess breeds $uccess

The Christy's chain once included 144 stores throughout Eastern Massachusetts, but in May 1998, he and his brother Jim sold 132 of them.

At that time Christy Mihos retained the 12 Christy's on Cape Cod along with some real estate holdings, and the sales price then was just under $34 million which was split wih the two brothers.

The scuttlebutt around Hyannis last week had the price for today's sale at over $25 million, or about $2 million for each location - $1 million for each Christy station and $1 million for each piece of real estate on average. The Barnstable County Registry of Deeds indicates that Christy Mihos received $33,800,000. for half of those sold this week which assumes nearly double that for the entire sale.

The buyer of Christy's of Cape Cod in today's sale, the Hess Corporation, already has several Hess Gas Stations with Mini-marts on The Cape.

But if there is one thing we've learned about Christy Mihos, it is to always expect the unexpected, and if I were Governor Deval Patrick, I'd be looking over my shoulder right now.

• Read about Hess in Wikipedia.
• Read about Hess at their corporate site.
• Christy's 2010 Governor's race website.