Armonk CVS plans delayed - Westfair Communications

The property at 450 Main Street in Armonk is still empty two months after being vacated by its former tenant, Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company Inc.

While Armonk business owners continue to protest a planned CVS retail store and pharmacy at the site long occupied by an A&P grocery store, developers have pushed on despite delays.

A year ago, Werber Management Inc. announced it had reached a long-term lease agreement with CVS Caremark Corp. of Woonsocket, R.I., for the 20,000-square-foot property at 450 Main Street, where Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. Inc. of Montvale, N.J., had been a tenant for more than 40 years.

At the time, CVS representatives told the Business Journal they expected to open in the first quarter of 2012, but delays and site plan revisions have pushed back the expected opening date.

Having initially received a building permit from the town of North Castle, CVS and property owner Eden Enterprises L.L.C. have since had to reapply for the necessary permits after plans were amended in February to allow for the property to be divided into two subsections.

CVS and Eden Enterprises presented the changes to the town Planning Board in April, and are now in the process of reviewing the board”™s recommendations, said attorney Alfred B. DelBello, who represents CVS, Eden Enterprises and property manager Werber Management.

“Right now, the attitude of both the owner and CVS is to try to do what the town wants done with that site,” said DelBello, partner at the White Plains law firm of DelBello, Donnellan, Weingarten, Wise and Wiederkehr L.L.P.

Renovations and other preparations for occupancy will take five months from the time CVS receives final approval from the town to commence construction, DelBello said.

DelBello would not say when he expected CVS to receive final site plan approval from the town.

The updated plans call for dividing the property into two sections, one being 17,389 square feet and the other being a 2,497-square-foot space that would be sub-leased by CVS to another business that has yet to be determined.

CVS also hopes to create a drive-through window as part of the pharmacy, install a new faÃ§ade on the building, repave the parking lot and improve the sidewalks leading from Main Street to the store”™s entrance.

A large contingent of North Castle residents, led by the group Concerned Citizens of Armonk, has fought CVS as it seeks to secure final permits from the town and has pledged to boycott the store when it opens.

“I am 100 percent against CVS. Their whole evil empire business plan makes me sick,” said Judy Gilmartin-Willsey, who owns a boutique frame shop just around the corner from the planned CVS.

Gilmartin-Willsey said it”™s hard to tell whether the absence of a tenant at the former A&P site has directly affected Armonk businesses, but acknowledged that sales have slowed.

“Business is way down and I think the other stores are feeling that as well,” she said. “There”™s more parking on the street, which is never a good sign.”