BUCHANAN — John Adcock is not a man to rush into a business venture.

Rather, the Berrien Springs resident and former engineer for Northwest Airlines is careful and studious.

And it was study that led him to make a significant investment, opening up the Marathon gas station on Front Street in Buchanan, reviving an old business and bringing in new business.

“I retired from Northwest Airlines after about 35 years,” Adcock said. “And I didn’t work for about a year. And then I went out on the road and drove for a little bit.”

He began driving for Lowe’s and said after having “brown-bagged” his lunch for quite some time, he decided during his drives to dine out.

That’s when Adcock started eating at Hilltop Cafe in Buchanan, just across the street from a gas station that had been left vacant for quite a few years.

Meanwhile, Adcock said his father, who had been living in Tucson, had fallen and broken his hip.

“He’s 85 and I was trying to get him to move out here,” Adcock said.

The son was successful, moving his father to Matea Court, a senior living community in Buchanan located in the same neighborhood as Hilltop Cafe.

Adcock continued being a regular at the restaurant and said he’d noticed the storage unit, gas station and repair space that had been sitting empty across the street.

“I really kind of studied it for about a year and finally bought the darn thing,” he said. “Once I bought it, it took us about six months before I could open it. We just kind of looked at the place and wondered and peeked in … It looked like it was in pretty good shape but it needed a lot of work and we did a lot of improvements.”

With the help of his son, who moved to Buchanan from Superior, Wis., Adcock turned his business into a family business and set about getting the station ready to open.

Along with preparing the fuel pumps and beginning a relationship with Marathon, Adcock also prepped his 27 storage units and leased out the mechanic bay area to mechanic Andrew Lee.

“He’s doing his own private customers that he’s had for years and years,” Adcock said. Lee will open up services to the general public in April.

“He’s a really good mechanic. He’s already changed a couple of engines out and done some really heavy-duty maintenance on some engines.”

As experiences go for new business owners, Adcock’s has been somewhat independent.

“I really haven’t had any help,” he said.

Adcock used his own capital when it came to financing his transition into going into business for himself. For that reason he’s staying conservative on the stock for the store portion of his gas station.

But he’s not afraid of the time it could take to get things up to full speed.

“I researched this for a year, I had a business plan and I did a lot of work,” he said. “Like I said, I studied it for a year.”

Already, Adcock said he has been within reach of a daily goal of fuel sales he’s set for himself.

Though there have been the unexpected expenses, Adcock is confident his business and the people who make it possible.

“It’s been a lot better than I ever expected,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of regulars and repeat (customers) right now. A lot of people are really happy to see it open and some people are real loyal to the Marathon product. I’ve just had more people comment that they’re happy it’s open. They’re happy to see that it’s open.”

It’s a lot of community support, Adcock said.

And for “just a guy across the street who was eating and decided to buy the place,” that support may be all he needs.