Mayor Richard M. Daley today joined members of the business community and local residents for the groundbreaking of a new CVS pharmacy at 3130-60 W. Madison Street. CVS is one of the first national retailers to locate on West Madison Street in the Garfield Park community. This new CVS, expected to be open by the end of 2011, will foster continued economic development and bring jobs to the area.

“During this tough economy, this project represents important new retail construction in the Madison St. commercial area and will help to revitalize the entire East Garfield Park neighborhood by sparking additional development,” Mayor Daley said. “Not only does it bring a needed retail outlet to the community, it will also provide up to 12 permanent jobs and create 75 temporary construction jobs.”

This store represents one of the first new design CVS stores built in the City. It will be largely constructed next year and is expected to open by year’s end. It will have a 75% green roof, an on-site parking lot and a landscaped area at the corner of the development.

CVS purchased the two city-owned vacant parcels on which the store will stand for $843,909, which includes approximately $106,000 placed in escrow to cover environmental remediation costs. This represents a $942,281 land write down and represented 17% of the total project costs of $5.5 million. Gershman, Brown and Crowley is the developer of the property.

No TIF assistance is involved in this development. However, increment collected from the Midwest TIF, in which this property is located, has allowed the city to fund a number of other projects in this area, including:

• Marshall Campus Park, a recently completed park located at Kedzie and Fifth Avenue
• Westinghouse Career Academy High School at 3223 West Franklin Blvd.,
• Supporting small businesses in the area through the Small Business Improvement Fund or SBIF
• Improving infrastructure such as resurfacing Madison from Kedzie to Central and upgrading street lighting on Madison from Sacramento to Western.

In addition, the Neighborhood Stabilization Program allowed acquisition of four previously vacant and foreclosed properties. By year end, two of the newly renovated properties (or four units) are expected to be sold to eligible home
buyers.

Chicago has benefit greatly from CVS. Over the past eight years CVS has developed over 30 stores in the City. CVS opened its first store in 1963 and is one of the largest pharmacy outlets in the U.S. with over 7,000 stores in 44
states and Puerto Rico.