A large-scale development public hearing notice stands Monday near the corner of College Avenue and Township Street where a CVS Pharmacy will replace a Days Inn motel.
Photo: Todd Gill, Fayetteville Flyer
The nation’s largest drug store chain may have a head start on the pharmacy market in Northwest Arkansas, but that isn’t stopping its biggest competitor from moving in.
Fayetteville planning commissioners this week approved plans for a CVS Pharmacy at the northeast corner of College Avenue and Township Street, on a site that’s currently home to a Days Inn motel.
According to city documents, the plans call for demolishing the motel to make room for a 13,225-square-foot drug store and 61-space parking lot at the southwest corner of the site. As part of the project, CVS has agreed to build new sidewalks with 10-15 feet of trees and landscaping along College and Township, and remove an unsightly retaining wall at the south end of the property.
Preliminary site plan
Source: City of Fayetteville
Aside from being across College Avenue from Fayetteville’s first Walgreens store, the new CVS could be the beginning of a state-wide war with the pharmacy giant, which operates 78 Walgreens locations in Arkansas, including five (soon to be six) retail pharmacies in Fayetteville.
While CVS is the second-largest drug store chain in the country, the Fayetteville store would be the first to open in Arkansas after the chain’s only other location in Texarkana. A third CVS Pharmacy is in the works along Highway 71 in Bella Vista.
Once complete, the new CVS will mark the finale of a complete transformation of the College-Township intersection, which began 13 years ago when Walgreens opened a 15,000-square-foot store on the northwest corner where a Nelms Chevrolet car dealership had been.
Kum & Go opened a 10-pump, 5,000-square-foot fuel station on the southeast corner in 2011, replacing a vacant restaurant building along with Bill & Tony’s Liquor Store and Tabriz Auto.
Arvest Bank is currently building a 6,000-square-foot, six-lane drive-through bank branch at the southwest corner, where a vacant car lot sat for years.
