Bigger, better building for Rite Aid

The store is moving across Glenwood Avenue.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- The Boardman Plaza is getting a new look.
The township's board of zoning appeals this week granted a variance to allow demolition of a portion of the plaza and construction of a free-standing Rite Aid at the southwest corner of U.S. 224 and Glenwood Avenue.
The variance was requested by LZ Construction Management LLC of Boardman on behalf of the Simon Property Group of Indianapolis.
Darren Crivelli, township zoning inspector, said the store fronts at U.S. 224 and Glenwood, from an exotic bird store to a nail salon, will be demolished.
Making changes
The new store will be 14,564 square feet and signs at Glenwood-224 and at the Glenwood entrance drive to the store. Its current location on the southeast corner of the intersection will be vacated when the new store opens.
Plans also call for underground retention in compliance with Mahoning County site requirements.
"The drainage plans and the construction drawings are to be submitted," Crivelli said.
Robert Shearer, project coordinator for WXZ Development Inc. of Middleburg Heights, the development company, said construction of the store is expected to start in mid-October.
Julie Vastyan, a Rite Aid spokeswoman at the corporate office in Camp Hill, Pa., said the new store will open in about a year.
The new Rite Aid will look a little different from other area locations. It will be a bit larger and include a GNC Living Well vitamin center.
Vastyan described the store as a new customer world design.
The company's Web site says that the company is in the midst of a new store development program with plans for 80 new or relocated stores and 200 remodeled stores this fiscal year. The customer world design, which implemented customer feedback, is the first new Rite Aid design in eight years.
Other features will be a 20-foot window at the pharmacy drive-through, a pharmacy waiting area and pharmacy counseling, Vastyan said. The one-hour photo section, already at the existing location, also will be offered at the new location and will include the latest digital photo capabilities.
Rite Aid operates about 3,400 stores in 28 states and the District of Columbia, according to the company Web site.
The plaza also will see some changes at its western end. A sign in front of the buildings that formerly housed Steinmart and TJ Maxx indicates that Burlington Coat Factory, another plaza tenant, will move to that location.