Greenfield, Indiana, February 21, 2025 – A new Leo’s Market & Eatery will soon be developed just north of I-70 on State Road 9 in Greenfield, between the Starbucks and Speedway gas station.
It will be the sixth location in the growing chain of markets, which was developed by the White family of Wilkinson.
Siblings Keith White and Stephanie White-Longworth launched the business in 2019.
Their great-grandfather founded a fuel business that would eventually become GasAmerica, which the White siblings sold to Speedway in 2012.
After waiting out their non-compete clause, the fourth-generation business owners started developing what would become Leo’s Market & Eatery, a one-stop shop that offers a market, dining and fuel.
Just don’t call it a gas station.
Stephanie White-Longworth celebrates at the opening of the Leo’s Market & Eatery on the south side of Indianapolis in 2023. She and her brother, Keith White, are preparing to break ground on the sixth store this spring, just north of the Starbucks on State Road 9 by the I-70 interchange in Greenfield.
“We always joke around here and say you don’t call Kroger a gas station just cause they happen to offer fuel, so we do fight that image a little bit,” said White-Longworth, who thinks of Leo’s as a market and eatery that also happens to sell gas.
Rather than just selling the usual array of candy, chips and drinks found at most convenience stores, Leo’s also offers fresh produce, honey, candles, fudge and other products from local vendors.
“Rather than carry the little 3-ounce jar mayonnaise for $10, we try to carry full-size grocery products,” said White-Longworth, who said that concept was based partly on her experience as a working mom of five children, who are now grown.
“Our ultimate goal is to make people’s lives easier. That’s why we have a drive-up (window) where you can get … anything in the market, anything but alcohol and lottery tickets,” she said.
Leo’s Eatery offers on-site dining and sells soups, salads, sandwiches and bowls along with take-home pulled pork and meatloaf dinners for four.
The signature item on the menu is kolaches — sweet dough topped or stuffed with sweet and savory fillings.
The Whites were searching for a unique signature item when they hired their executive chef, Matt Chappell, who they sent to train at the Kolache Shoppe in Texas to perfect the handheld baked goods.
White-Longworth, who has long been a big fan of the food, said Leo’s corporate kitchen makes and distributes about 2,000 kolaches to its five locations each day, and that 30% of transactions by Leo’s loyalty card holders include at least one kolache.
‘Growth mode’
Now more than five years and thousands of kolaches after launching their first market, the Whites are pleased with the progress of their growing chain, which includes stores in Greenfield, Noblesville, McCordsville, Indianapolis and Lafayette.
The company also plans to open an abbreviated Leo’s Market at McCord Square in McCordsville sometime this summer, featuring a smaller version of the market with grab-and-go eatery items but no fuel.
White-Longworth said the business is in “growth mode,” focused primarily on locations within an hour or two drive-time from Greenfield.
“Right now our goal is (to open) a couple stores a year. That’s what we’re hoping for,” she said.
While their average has been opening one store per year, White said he’s looking forward to accelerating the pace and opening multiple stores each year.
“With the high traffic counts on State Street and I-70, we anticipate the new Greenfield Leo’s location to be a great addition to our portfolio. We have received numerous requests for a Leo’s on the north side of town,” he said.
His sister said the company strives to create an inviting, safe space at each location, a concept that coincides with her family’s desire to give back to their community.
“Keith and I were born and raised in Indiana, and we’ve lived in Hancock County for most of our adult lives, and we really like the idea of giving where you live and making a difference where you are,” she said.
The White Family Foundation Fund has awarded roughly $400,000 to various community causes and organizations since its creation in 2012.
The family previously gave back through the GasAmerica Community Foundation, before they sold off the chain of gas stations.
The White siblings also maintain the Richard and Judy White Memorial Scholarship Program in honor of their late parents.
They named the Leo’s chain in honor of their father, whose middle name was Leo.
The name is also a play on their real estate and development business, Pride Investment Partners in Greenfield.
White-Longworth said incorporating the word “pride” into the business name was partly based on the fact their family has a predominant number of females, as a lion’s pride does.
Family pride
White-Longworth and her brother, Keith, come from a successful line of business owners.
Their great-grandfather launched the White Oil Co., later known as the White Petroleum Co. and White Flash.
Their great-grandfather owned one gas station, and their grandfather later expanded to three.
Next, their father and his two brothers expanded the company to multiple locations, eventually changing the name to GasAmerica in 1983.
When their dad passed away in 1998, White-Longworth and her brother took over the business, when she was 28 and he was 26.
They’ve continuously grown the company over the years.
The siblings opted to change the name of their real estate group — KS Real Estate — to Pride Investment Partners after selling their fuel company to Speedway in 2012.
GasAmerica had about 90 stations at the time.
After selling, the Whites maintained their trucking company — JAS Trucking — which they’d had since 2000. They continued to provide fuel to Marathon gas stations, but quickly found that they missed being in the convenience store business.
They waited for their five-year no-compete clause to run out before diving into developing what would become Leo’s Market and Eatery.
In 2012 they sold their trucking company back to Marathon and invited the company to become its fuel supplier, and focused on launching the brand.
The Whites opened their first market at the corner of U.S. 40 and Meridian Road in Greenfield in July 2019.
The developers got final approval from the city of Greenfield just last week to break ground on their second Greenfield location in late March or early April.
White-Longworth said that due to some supply chain delays, it’s difficult to nail down a target opening date. “In my perfect world we will get open this year, but it’s possible that we’re rolling into the spring of next year,” she said.
The 6,700-square-foot store will be built north of the Starbucks at 2732 N. State St. in Greenfield, just east of the Elanco campus.
The Whites have owned the property for about 25 years, and sold parcels of the land to both Starbucks and Speedway.
In July 2024, their Pride Investment Partners teamed up with Hancock Health and NineStar Connect to purchase the Elanco property, which will be repurposed when Elanco’s lease runs out in 2027 and the company relocates to Indianapolis.
The joint venture — HealthStar Partners — acquired the south 20 acres of the Elanco campus, including the five primary Elanco buildings located at I-70 and State Road 9.
“When we were approached about joining that group obviously one of the plus sides was we knew we already owned the frontage, so it made sense for us to be a part of that,” White-Longworth said.
While she said there are not yet definite plans as to what to do with the property, “the real goal there was … that we wanted to get local people to have the ownership of that key piece of real estate in the community, because previously it was owned by a company out of California,” she said.
By having local owners, “we will have a little more say-so to make sure it is developed in a quality manner. We’ve really got two years still to figure out exactly what that will be,” she said. One thing is for certain: There will be a Leo’s Market at the south side of the property, where passersby can pick up a kolache and a tank of gas on any given day.