Pinellas Park may add CVS by annexing

The deal with the property owner would replace a gas station on Park Boulevard with a drugstore.

By ANNE LINDBERG

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 13, 2000

PINELLAS PARK -- A drugstore chain that's facing opposition elsewhere in the county may come to Pinellas Park by way of annexation.

The Pinellas Park council unanimously gave tentative approval last week to the annexation of about 2.5 acres of land. The property at 7101 Park Blvd. is currently the site of an Amoco gas station. But CVS Pharmacy wants to build a 10,880-square-foot store there.

If the council gives the annexation final approval at its Aug. 24 meeting, it will also be approving the drugstore.

That's because the property owner, Heron Holdings Inc., is asking that the council guarantee certain things in trade for the annexation.

According to the proposed annexation agreement, city officials will agree to:

Approve the preliminary site plan for the CVS Pharmacy.

Okay a zoning variance to allow a drive-through to be part of the drugstore.

Let the property owner vacate city rights of way along 75th Avenue and 72nd Street at no cost.

In return, Pinellas Park will have the land annexed into the city and receive the revenues from property taxes and other fees the city would normally charge business owners. That would add up to about $15,300 a year, according to city figures.

If the annexation is granted and the CVS store is built, it would be next door to a proposed Lowe's shopping center that is scheduled to have a grocery store with its own drive-through pharmacy. The Lowe's would be built on the site of the Mustang Flea Market. The council also gave tentative approval to that project last week.

CVS, the country's second-largest drugstore chain, announced last year it wanted to enter the Tampa Bay market. But it's been a rough ride so far for the Rhode Island-based company.

In St. Petersburg, neighbors objected after CVS announced it wanted to open its first Pinellas store on Fourth Street N where Watson's Food Town now sits.

Neighbors of the Bay Pines Evangelical Lutheran Church, at Park Boulevard and 113th Street in Seminole, are equally cool to the idea of replacing the church with the pharmacy.

That could mean the potential Pinellas Park site would be the easiest for the company to build and open with the built-in guarantees of approval.

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