After approximately 10 years, Bowling Green residents will soon have a new pharmacy in town.
The city is in the process of building a new CVS building downtown in place of the old Ohio National Guard Armory.
The armory was built more than 100 years ago and early classes from the University used to take place there.
The pharmacy is expected to open in November and will be approximately 13,225 square feet.
Michael DeAngelis, director of public relations at CVS, said in an email that the previous pharmacy doesn’t have any bearing on the current plans CVS has for its new store.
“We do occasionally close a store for operational or business reasons,” DeAngelis said. “Our former and future locations are unrelated and we are confident that the new CVS will be successful.”
Owner of Deck-Hanneman Funeral Home, Kraig Hanneman was one of the early bidders for the property in 2006 and placed a bid for $150,000. CVS finally purchased the property for $1.89 million, according to Wood County auditor records.
Hanneman said he placed a bid on the property before it was determined what would come out of the space in order to expand his company’s parking lot, but soon realized the cost would be too expensive to renovate.
“It was more than what we could do,” Hanneman said. “The building would be hard for us to use and the main reason why we wanted to get the space was for our parking lot.”
DeAngelis said when the planning is taken place for a new store to be built, the employees at the pharmacy think about the customers needs. The new location for the CVS pharmacy met that criteria, he said.
“We seek highly visible and easily accessible sites for our new store locations,” DeAngelis said. “It is very common for our new stores to be placed at well-trafficked intersections.”
At-Large City Council member Robert Mcomber said the city didn’t buy the property mainly because there wouldn’t be a proper reason to actually use the space.
“The building was in very bad shape and there wasn’t anyone on council to come over and purchase the property,” Mcomber said. “Nobody would have any serious use for it.”
DeAngelis said the University was a major reason why the pharmacy chose its location so close to the school on Wooster Street for the purpose of helping students and their needs, as well as the rest of the town’s.
“We expect the University community will be a great customer base for us,” he said. “We look forward to serving their retail pharmacy needs.”
