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CVS is remedy for thorn in side

An adult business, along with old stores at 34th Street near Central, will close.

By PAUL SWIDER
Published December 27, 2006

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Dirk Shadd] An adult club, a Hess gas station and an aging strip of offices and shops will make way for the new CVS. Neighbors are pleased.

Residents of the Central Oak Park neighborhood were pleasantly surprised recently when they realized that an old commercial property at the entrance to their community would become a new CVS drugstore.

"The members are very excited and pleased," association president Linda Phillips said about a CVS coming to 34th Street near Central Avenue. "This will definitely enhance the entryway off Central."

Zaremba Group, of Cleveland, received approval from the Environmental Development Commission last month for the 12,500-square-foot drugstore. Until the building is built and there is a lease, CVS representatives would not comment on the development, but Zaremba is familiar with the company's stores because it develops them in Florida, California, Ohio and Michigan.

"This is not what your typical CVS will look like," said Shane Acevedo, development manager with Zaremba out of Winter Park. "It will be very nice, actually. One of the nicer stores."

The building will be designed in an arts and crafts architectural style to mix with Central Oak Park homes and adjacent Historic Kenwood. The store will have large windows, a stone base, brick veneer, hip and gable roofs, exposed roof rafters, battered columns, scored stucco, large trim pieces and corner towers.

Acevedo has not yet determined street access to the property. The store will include drive-through service and about 70 parking spaces.

"It's going to be a cleanup of that corner," he said.

The 1-acre site now is home on the south to an aging strip of offices and retail, on the east to a Hess gas station, and on the north to an adult business that has been a thorn in the neighborhood's side for a long time, Phillips said.

Many neighborhoods that have adult businesses would like to be rid of them, but because it's hard for such businesses to find new sites, they rarely move. Residents were especially pleased and surprised to see this one leave, Phillips said.

"It's in the wrong neighborhood," she said of the bar that has had many names but which was most recently known as Twist.

Acevedo said CVS wants stores in high-traffic areas, which makes 34th Street so attractive. There already is a CVS on 34th Street at 22nd Avenue N.

The development will be a little challenging, Acevedo said, because the gas station site will require environmental cleanup. He said he couldn't speculate on the cost, but said such requirements can run as high as $500,000. Such expenses are becoming more routine, he said, as developers chase after fewer available parcels in Pinellas County.

Construction should begin in about a year, with completion about six months after that, he said.

Phillips said the drugstore is just one of the area's improvements. She pointed to upgrades at the Central Plaza shopping center, new fast-food restaurants on 34th Street and other new businesses.

"We have a lot going on," she said. "It's the secret of the area."

Paul Swider can be reached at 892-2271 or pswider@sptimes.com or by participating in itsyourtimes.com.

[Last modified December 27, 2006, 07:28:08]