An EVG tipster shared the marketing materials with info on subleasing the Duane Reade on Union Square.
There aren't many details about leasing the 12,790 square-foot-space. The rental rate is negotiable. The possession date is this month. Find a PDF with the flyer here.
Several Duane Reades have been closing around the city, including three on the Upper West Side and one on Canal and Broadway.
Parent company Walgreens has an expanded location right there at 14th Street and Fourth Avenue, and there's a Duane Reade on 14th Street and Third Avenue and 10th Street and Third Avenue.
The Union Square Duane Reade opened in the summer of 2010 in the former Virgin Megastore.
And then of course there's the double-decker DR on 14th and 1st, which was shoehorned in right next to CVS. I still haven't forgiven the Walgreens corporation for taking out the old working bank clock that used to be there and inserting that insipid, useful to no one DR logo in its stead.
ReplyDeleteOther DR locations to close: 23rd at Third; Third at about 28th... gone.
ReplyDeleteThe hard part is imagining what might take over Not banks. That's played out. A supermarket? Hardly. Just look at Third between 16th and 17th: 3/4 of that stretch is vacant, including the old supermarket space; will 7-11 open where Mariella used to serve great pizza?
Somehow we need to figure out how small business can again take root and thrive in smaller spaces.
All these large retail pharmacies accomplished what they wanted to do: destroy the small pharmacies. Now they have the market cornered, they can close shop. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. NEXT!
ReplyDeleteSeveral times when I've needed a prescription, I've put it in at Walgreen's at 14th & 4th Ave, and they tell me they don't have the medication - but that the Duane Reade at this location does. Not sure what kind of management issues Walgreen's has.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I hate this Duane Reade b/c they advertised "get your growlers filled here", etc. - it seemed to me to be pandering to the frat crowd. Further, the store is sprawling, but if you actually need things like vitamins, soap, bandaids, or other things a drugstore is known for, you have to walk past all the sandwiches, soda, beer, cosmetics, "seasonal items" & other crap to get there.
Duane Reade. Walgreens and all of these chains suck if you depend on them for any medications. They also closed down all of their walk in clinics, and they make life miserable for patients when they close down their pharmacies with little notice and force hundreds of people who depend on life saving medications to deal with another pharmacist, and this can delay getting medications for asthma, diabetes, blood presssure. etc. You're better off going to an independent pharmacy if you can find one that hasn't been driven out of business.
ReplyDeleteWill miss Mariella forever! 8th to 18th street from Broadway east to Third Ave is still wildly overstored with Walgreens/DR megastores and way too much competition in place for grocery entry. Expanding the DR corner 10th Street/Third Ave extremely misguided as multiple better opetions within chain within blocks and always empty, plus 10th Street frontage where all windows stretching a third of way down the block now permanently blacked out creates blight in place of light and life from former restaurant tenants. Has been convenient for the crusties tho....
ReplyDeleteFine by me. I love New York City Pharmacy on 1st Ave btwn 12th & 13th. They aren't big and don't have the stock that a CVS/Walgreens/Duane Reade does, but for prescriptions and service they are the best (and often cheaper!). Please help keep this store in business!
ReplyDeleteNew York Pharmacy on First is THE BEST!!! Wonderful, caring family business. Love love love them. But you know what? My insurance co -- and yours -- wants us all to do drugs by mail order through CVS etc. No fair.
ReplyDeleteWord on the street is Walgreens/DR overpaid for the lease per sq. What a shit show.
ReplyDeleteSomeone should launch a website of independent NYC pharmacies where you come up with what's in your zip code.
ReplyDelete@4:47pm: If all companies would stop overpaying for retail leases, then retails rents might become more reasonable. But don't hold your breath.
ReplyDeleteBring back Virgin Records
ReplyDeleteDuane Reade, CVS, etc. are all just mini-Walmarts and glorified bodegas. And going by the widespread opioid addiction pandemic, the biggest gateway drug market in the city.
ReplyDeleteIf you keep you eyes open while walking down a an avenue you will see there are still plenty of independent pharmacies around, keep them by using them.
ReplyDelete