AZ Republic - Tempe to get a CVS Pharmacy

Downtown Tempe to get a CVS pharmacy Katie Nelson The Arizona Republic Sept. 6, 2006 02:30 PM Downtown Tempe could get its first pharmacy in years, marking yet another step toward an urban-living focused transformation. Site plans have been submitted to the city for a new CVS Pharmacy. The documents put to rest rumors circulating for months about the future of the now vacant southwest corner of Mill Avenue and University Drive. The five-page proposal tells more than just plans for bricks and sticks, according to city leaders. It signifies a coming lifestyle change. "The location of a full services pharmacy in the downtown and adjacent to the surrounding neighborhood helps bring back to the community the services and goods that improve the quality of life that makes it easier to live in the area," said Mayor Hugh Hallman. "It also demonstrates we are doing the right thing, to convert the district from entertainment and retail to one that has a true sense of neighborhood in and of itself," he added. Other community-focused amenities coming to the area include a Whole Foods Market inside the proposed Cosmopolitan - now called "KML Mosaic" - project that's slated to go on University Drive at the Gentle Strength Cooperative site. Other mixed-use proposals are touted to have support services such as food markets for coming condo-dwellers as well. But the CVS is the first such project to come to the area and stand alone. The nearly one-acre piece of land had been the site of a Mobile gas station for up to five decades. City records show it was likely a filling station even before that as well. In recent months crews have been dismantling the remains of the gas station to prepare it for a new purpose. The preliminary plans submitted to the city could change as they are reviewed by city staff over the coming months according to Steve Venker, a city planning and zoning manager, but for now the building would be a maximum of 30 feet tall. The CVS building would be situated on the front of the lot, adjacent to the curbsides of the intersection in order to encourage a pedestrian-oriented feel. A parking lot would be in back, visible from the Mill Avenue side. The proposed plot stretches out beyond the gas station footprint, and into at least part of adjacent retail lots. That could mean the disappearance of several local businesses including Sahara Middle Eastern Restaurant and Long Wong's on Mill Avenue, which only reopened at the site earlier this year. One of the owners, Norma Hora, said Long Wong's hadn't actually been notified of the change, but they had suspicions because a surveyor was measuring land that included their lot. As of now, the CVS will look like many of its some 6,100 locations throughout the nation: pale yellow stucco walls, pillars around the sides, with a marquee-style front. There are currently seven CVS Pharmacies in Tempe; but the closest pharmacy to the downtown district is a mile away where there is a Walgreens at Mill Avenue and Broadway Road.