By Mark Dawson
Special to Inside
The CVS Pharmacy Corporation continues to expand into the Chicago area, and has recently completed plans to open a new store at Lawrence and Damen avenues. Earlier this summer community members approved the Rhode Island based pharmacy chain's plan to move into a new building that will include a store with 9900 square feet of retail space, about 100 parking spaces, and 40 condominiums. The new CVS store will also offer a drive through pharmacy window. A separate retail space for a different tenant will be around the corner on Damen Ave.
The developer, Kent Knablecamp, will demolish the building at the northwest corner of Lawrence and Damen avenues, across the street from the Levy Senior Citizens Center, and the building directly north on Damen Ave. The new building will also replace the parking lot on the west side of Damen Ave. that once belonged to a funeral home across the street.
The two buildings to be demolished are home to two Mexican restaurants, the Pera Villo #2 and the Taqueria El Ranchito at 4806 N. Damen Ave. A pizza shop, a travel bureau, a florist, and several other businesses will also be displaced. Both buildings are 1920s vintage but neither is judged to be worth preserving. Demolition is slated to begin in the spring of 2004 after leases expire and the current tenants have had an opportunity to move.
The new CVS pharmacy should open in the spring of 2005, as a tenant of the developer.
After facing some controversy last year when the CVS Pharmacy Corporation made plans to demolish an 1890s vintage building on the Gold Coast, CVS compromised with locals to preserve the facade of the historic building. CVS continued that trend with their plans for a new pharmacy on Lawrence Ave. Rather than providing a suburban-style brick box next to a slab of asphalt, the architects, Sullivan Goulette, designed a building that covers the entire footprint of the site. All of the 100 parking spaces are indoors, including about 75 in the basement and 25 at grade level.
Generally CVS Pharmacy prefers to provide 75 to 80 parking spaces for their stores, but 40 of the planned spaces will be set aside for the condominium owners. CVS accepted fewer parking spaces than normal for this location partly because the corporation and the community want to encourage foot traffic to the store. Also, this is the first time that CVS has participated in a mixed-use residential and retail development. Finally, CVS agreed that while the new pharmacy will sell some groceries it will not provide liquor and it will close at midnight.
Ald. Gene Schulter (47th) and the Retail 47 Committee guided the discussions with CVS and the community in planning the new building. This committee seeks to attract new businesses in the Ward, and approached CVS about two years ago when the company was making plans for a new store at Irving Park Rd. and Western Ave. At a community meeting earlier this summer local residents voted three to one in favor of the development. "The concept was warmly received," Ald. Schulter said. "People welcomed another pharmacy into the neighborhood." After addressing issues of traffic and parking, the locals liked the idea of another place to buy groceries, plus the competition and lower prices that the new CVS will bring. The alderman's office is also working with the businesses in the buildings to help them move elsewhere.
Meanwhile, nine of the 40 new condominium units will be set aside as affordable housing units. Four will be slated as part of the Chicago Partners for Affordable Neighborhoods program, with base prices of $155,000, and an additional $40,000 grant is available from the city for eligible buyers. Applicants for this program must be 47th ward residents and have rented in the ward for at least seven years. If they also meet the income requirement they will be required to take two courses on home and condominium ownership provided by the Rogers Park Community Council, and then their names will be added to a pool to be eligible for a lottery. The Ravenswood Community Council will manage the lottery.
Currently about 30 new condominium units planned or under construction are to be available to this lottery in the ward, and about 60 eligible applicants have been approved for the lottery. Residents interested in being considered for the lottery should apply at the 47th ward office. Also, besides the four units being held for a lottery, five more units will be offered for sale at a discount, with prices based on what would be affordable for a family earning the median income in Chicago.
Schulter noted that the current property taxes collected on the properties at this corner are about $36,000 a year. The developer estimates that the new building will generate as much as $500,000 in property taxes a year. Since the building will be in a Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) district, the difference of about $464,000 a year will be available for local improvements for each of the next 23 years, until the TIF district expires. He said that the funds could be used for streetscaping on Lawrence Ave., for example. TIF funds can also be used for improvements to schools, libraries, and other public facilities within the district.
CVS Pharmacy, with 4100 stores in 34 states and the District of Columbia, 110,000 employees, and $24 billion in revenue in 2002, is the nation's largest drug store chain. The corporation has a strategy to open 440 new stores nationally every year. CVS has 42 stores in the Chicagoland area, including one that opened last week at Western & Diversey avenues, and has plans to open 10 more by the end of 2003.
|
