Village Lukoil

Since the coming of the undulating One Jackson Square condo and the condo-sponsored mega clean-up of Jackson Square Park, I've been waiting for the Lukoil gas station at 8th Avenue and Horatio to vanish.

Now it has.

Tipster Randi let us know it just shuttered without warning. The gas pumps have been uprooted and carted away. The bags of potato chips and quarts of motor oil have disappeared from the Mini-Mart. A weird sign advertising (sold out) "Explosions in the Sky" remains stuck to the wall.

Once a busy stop for cabbies, there was but a single lone taxi parked there when I visited. I asked the Russian driver, who was eating his lunch in the abandoned station, if he knew what happened. He shrugged and said, "Something bad probably. They took gas pump! It all disappeared overnight."

Like the former Gaseteria of Soho, will this prime spot be the future home of luxury lofts? Residents above, you may be saying goodbye to your park vista.

Esquared alerts us to a pop-up art show at the other Lukoil gas station, up in Chelsea, already wrapped in a silvery condo's grip. How long will that one last?