Saturday, February 19, 2000
Walgreen's move to cost city $3.7M
BY ROBERT ANGLEN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It is going to cost Cincinnati taxpayers $3.7 million to relocate Walgreens a few doors from where the city uprooted it in 1998.
The move will force a handful of small businesses at Sixth and Race to close and leave Walgreens across the street from its competitor, CVS Pharmacy.
But city officials say the settlement — which must be approved by City Council before March 3 — is necessary to get them out of a lawsuit that began when they attempted to seize CVS and replace it with Walgreens.
That does little to ease concerns of preservationists who say the city is losing historic buildings and one-of-a-kind downtown businesses.
“I'm sorry,” said Beth Sullebarger, executive director of the Cincinnati Preservation Association. “There is a trend in relocating indigenous businesses that have served the city for a long time and replacing them with a national chain.”
At Friday's Planning Commission meeting — where details of the settlement were discussed — Ms. Sullebarger said the city seems to be reversing its policies and “I hope this doesn't happen again.”
The businesses, operating out of small storefront spaces beneath mostly vacant brick buildings, include Dodd Jewelers, Jade Wigs and Kathman Goodyear Shoe Repair.
Planning Commissioner Caleb Faux agreed with Ms. Sullebarger, saying the city's track record for relocating Cincinnati small businesses has not been good.
“If in an effort to accommodate Walgreens, we drive out businesses of this type, then we have shot ourselves in the foot,” he said.
The business that drew the most concern was Kathman's, which has been downtown for 95 years and would have to relocate to make room for Walgreens.
But on Friday, unbeknownst to city officials, Kathman's owner quietly announced he would shut his doors for good today. He blamed the city for a failure to develop downtown and said he couldn't wait any longer for “something to happen.”
City Manager John Shirey said Walgreens was also a longtime business that did not ask to be moved when the city seized the Fifth and Race Street Tower for a department store that never materialized.
He said the settlement will also provide for new housing
developments on both sides of Race Street above Walgreens and CVS.
Officials on Friday refused to discuss any construction time lines or when demolition on Sixth Street will begin. The $3.7 million is slated to help the city's developer — Western-Southern Life Insurance Co. — acquire four parcels on Sixth Street and for other project expenditures. In a lawsuit against the city, CVS lawyers contend that officials tried to seize the pharmacy as a way to protect Western-Southern from having to pay $1.5 million to Walgreens for moving it out of the Fifth & Race Tower.
City officials, who once offered CVS $1.7 million for the Sixth and Race Street site, said they wanted Walgreens there because Western-Southern would make better use of the site, specifically by developing the floors above the pharmacy.
Under terms of the settlement, officials have said CVS would stay and Western-Southern would be allowed to develop the floors above the pharmacy. Western-Southern would also develop housing above Walgreens.
A report to the planning commission says the four properties being acquired by Western-Southern will be conveyed to the city and then leased back to Western-Southern to build 11,940 square feet of first-floor retail space and three floors of housing, about 24 units.
The report does not indicate how much the city will charge Western-Southern for the lease.
Councilman Jim Tarbell, who sits on the planning commission, agreed that the settlement is important but questioned why the city could not do more for the small businesses.
“We can come up with $3.7 million quick when we want to move a drugstore,” he said. But when a small business is on the line, “there is no money on the table.”
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