Speaking of mid-market developments around 7th Street, a plugged-in reader reports: “CVS will begin construction on a new store at the corner of Market and 7th Streets in August 2012. The check cashing outlet, barbershop, and restaurant will close.” Cheers.
∙ 67 Units For Young Professionals Between 6th And 7th As Proposed [SocketSite]
Good! Market Street needs a clean up!
That’s welcoming news for people who live and walk around the area. Glad the city is cleaning up mid-Market!
Great news!
Excellent. This will not only add new jobs in the open market, it will also employ 3 or 4 laborers to picket the store for employing non-union workers.
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Yea I guess it’s better than a check cashing place… but CVS? Seriously, how many Walgreens and CVS does this city (on Market specifically) really need?! I understand that these are necessary steps in swapping the crowd that perches on the mid Market corners… but pulling restaurants and barber shops to put in a CVS where I’d like to see it go.
Any plans for the top portion of the building? I’d love to see some of this vacant real estate in these old structures fill up. I would love to see some more affordable office/studio spaces pop up in SF.
There are only a handful of CVS pharmacies in SF. More competition for Walgreens (which dominates SF and has very high markups) is welcome.
A big chain displacing several local businesses is not good, though. I hope the displaced small businesses are able to re-open in nearby vacant storefronts.
Your right Dan……..Walgreens pricing is out of whack and deceiving. Last week I bought ‘sale’ items at Walgreens, buy one, second one half off ( razor blades and suntan lotion ) and then went next door to Safeway and found the same items for less even with Walgreens supposed sale….FYI everyone.
Too bad that Rite Aid closed so many stores as there is little competition for Walgreens so maybe this CVS is a good thing for consumers.
For the love of god, when will someone realize that to clean up this portion of Market street, we need to close the methadone clinic that is located in the back of this building? That “crack alley” behind this building is a complete nightmare and probably a huge reason why this stretch of Market street is the way it is.
the city is not “cleaning up mid-market street” (per palms above comment). if anything, CVS is opening a store mid-market; their business decision has very little with the city cleaning up mid-market.
this is a step in the right direction in changing the character of the mid-market neighborhood, however my hunch is that this will not “clean up” the area.
will i ever shop there? unlikely.
This is great news. The string of businesses in that building are seedy and encourage loiters at the BART station.
Also, +1 for closing that methadone clinic, as well as the other at 7th and Howard.
Please tell me that they are required to maintain/restore the historical facade with the renovation.
Can’t say I’ll miss the check-cashing place.
+1 to above. this is definitely great news because the business on that corner attracted quite the seedy crowd. i live in the area and always wanted the check cashing and such to move elsewhere
I also agree that in order to do a cleanup, other such locations that attract the crowd the city is trying to move out of mid-market needs to go
Rite Aid sold their SF stores to Walgreens, which should not have been allowed because it was clearly to eliminate competition.
Is the city planning on removing the “seating” in the Civic Center Muni/BART entrance at this corner, as they did with the 8th St and Market St corner, replacing it with a rail that’s not as conducive to sitting.
You could force Prada to open six stores there, and throw in a Bulgari outlet as well but all that’d mean would be that it’s time to short their stocks;
the city has never cared to clean up that part of town (or any other one) b/c it is hostage to a plague of “poverty” pimping organizations and now it is run by a non-mayor mayor that makes Dellums look as if he were alive.
This a great step. The building is owned by the Odd fellows fraternal organization. They use some of the building for themselves and rent out much of it to the well known Line Ballet Company for their studios.
The methadone clinic next door is owned by private doctor.
DPW has rebuilt two of the transit station entrances, each cost $200,000 and would like to do more when there is money available. BART has not been very cooperative about this and has demanded that the City pay them $40,000 for each entrance. Thank you Mr. Radulovich.
The building is in the Central Market Community Benefit District so property owners pay for extra cleaning and “ambassador” on the street to deal with problems.
Most communities would KILL for the opportunity to close a barber shop and restaurant. They really do attract the wrong element. It’s not like that “element” isn’t already there and will simply frequent the CVS now instead of the restaurant. (Yes, this is sarcasm).
I’m sure rich soccer moms will suddenly appear from miles away to frequent this particular drugstore out of 50,000 others in the city, and that will drastically “clean up” the area.
In the meantime, CVS will do a booming business selling needles, condoms and single cans of food, and the cheerleading posters will be shocked, shocked, that replacing a barber shop catering to lower income people with a drugstore that will learn how to cater to lower income people didn’t chase them all away.
The realtors and other cheerleaders really know no boundaries on their quest here.
Hey guys, “the perfect is the enemy of the good.” Replacing a check-cashing place with a CVS is a win, even if it doesn’t bring about world peace.
There used to be a Merrill’s in the next block that seemed to do plenty of business. Quiet a bit of it was filling prescriptions from the “methadone clinic” which also provides primary care services to methadone clients or anyone else on an “ability to pay”/walk-in basis. The bums laying around in the alley and p*ssing themselves behind the clinic, by the way, are NOT clients of the clinic which has rules against clients “loitering” in its vicinity and employs security guards to make sure they don’t do so. As a matter of fact, those people in the alley are as disgusting to people at the clinic as to everyone else.
This s fabulous news! I’m thrilled to read that criminal-magnet check cashing joint is going away.
This is a welcome change. Looks like the Odd Fellows are doing their part to effect improvement. At least the 2000 dancers who come to the building everyday won’t have to deal with the street scum that used to hang out near BART. Now, if the methadone – free-all-you-can-use clinic moves, the residents can have their neighborhood back.
Of course this move has already improved the area! The employees of the Odd Fellows Building staff were calling SFPD 20-30 times a day to move the “element” away from the liquor store and checking cashing businesses and the thrift store. Since Sept. 1st, a total of 7 calls have been made to SFPD. The clients of the ballet company and dance center at the building, as well as the several other groups are happy not to be begged for “change” and harassed on 7th street. CVS will be the impetus to improve the block. Many thanks to the Odd Fellows and manager Pete Sellars for making deal. The Odd Fellows have been a fixture in SF since 1849.
As one of the dancers working in the building, I am thrilled that there will be a CVS. Right now, we still have to run to the Walgreens on 9th/Market if we needed something (not a nice neighborhood stroll). There are notably less thugs since the liquor store closed.
Does anyone know when the new CVS opens?
Yeah, I am wondering the same thing regarding the opening date. There doesn’t seem to be much construction activity that I can see.
Slated to open in late August 2013.
CVS opened its doors today. They took on the location despite knowing it is a tough drug infested area. The methadone clinic clients next door will surely stop in to shop lift. As long as the clinic in in this part of market street, the addicts will come, the drug dealers will come. CVS will deal with it. It was a reality check when its front door was smashed on its first day by a client of the methadone clinic. Good luck to CVS.