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welcome to Washington Square West

In December, we speculated on the new tenant for the prime retail space at Broad and Chestnut Sts., which most recently held a Borders location for about a decade. And when zoning notices went up on this building last week, we started making some phone calls to find out what was going on.

Great potential

Here’s the text of the zoning application, with some emphasis added. See if you can figure it out before we tell you:

“Accessory to the following: retail sales of groceries, bakery goods & pre-packaged foods & beverages,  accessory photographic processing and printing; take out restaurant with seating (sales & preparing & serving of hold & cold food & beverages in/on disposable ware for eat in & take out  less than 30 seats) w/ garbage disposal in kitchen & interior trash storage  all on the first floor; retail sales of groceries, bakery goods & pre-packaged foods & beverages; take out restaurant with seating ( sales & preparing & serving of prepared hot & code foods & beverages in/ on disposable ware for eat in and take out , less than 30 seats), w/ garbage disposal in kitchen & interior trash storage on second floor; retail sales of fragrances, cosmetics and beauty supplies and general merchandise; beauty salon (hair, nails & facials) & retail sales of related accessories & products; retail sales of magazines, books, appliances & electronics; retail pharmacy (drugs & medicines with accessory nonprescription health products & accessories), consulting room & customer patient examination area (treatment of patients on the third floors), all one tenant.”

Rumors had been running rampant that a Walgreens was in store for this space, and a couple of sources have confirmed this over the past few days. But as the bolded text above would indicate, this will resemble no Walgreens you’ve ever seen. Two small restaurants will be on the premises, along with a hair/nail salon, and a doctor’s office. Previously, one of our commenters directed us to reports about flagship Walgreens (or Duane Reade, same company) locations in Chicago and New York. The zoning application seems to suggest this concept convincingly.

So there you go. No Cheesecake Factory, no American Girl, no awesome laser tag venue.

But then again, haven’t you always wanted to get sushi at your local pharmacy?

Chicago flagship Walgreens, photo from NPR

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COMMENTS
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Posted in Washington Square West | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments
  • Anonymous

    The restaurant would, if done right, allow them to sell beer. Sayin’. 

  • Steve S.

    The old Downtown Crossing Borders (in Boston) is also gonna become a Flagship (TM) Walgreens…I wonder how many more will see this conversion around the country?

  • Luchobucho

    oh hell yeah.

  • http://www.philadelphiaspeaks.com/forum/center-city/26913-rumor-has-there-will-wallgreens-closed-borders-broad-chestnut-st-8.html#post494733 Rumor has it that there will be a Wallgreens at the closed Borders @ Broad and Chestnut St – Page 8

    [...] Philly seems pretty sure: New Tenant Confirmed for Borders Space at Broad & Chestnut | NakedPhilly Reply With Quote + Reply to [...]

  • Guest

    Walgreen’s ? seriously?

    Just when you thought this center city retail couldn’t be more of a joke. 

  • barryg

    Mr. Penn, what is your suggestion for a tenant in this space that many other retailers and restaurants passed on due to its awkward layout and liability concerns?

  • Mba19067

    feh

  • Andeerrr

    yuck

  • Anonymous

    …and when this opens you’ll be there all the time.  Keep hatin’.

    I’ve been to a super-Walgreens.  It is awesome.  Watch and see.

  • qweezyq

    Duane Reed in NYC has froyo. Brilliant

  • Johnfcjr

    Great…now if we could just get a few more nail places, bank branches and some yogurt places we’ll be all set. Never enough of those

  • Fmshovlin

    Isn’t it funny that there’s a Border’s in the background of the Walgreens photo?

  • http://twitter.com/animalmarshall Marshall

    I work right around the corner of the new super-Walgreens in Chicago. It’s 2 blocks west of Michigan Ave and right next to the iconic Chicago Theater, and it works really well in that spot. There are a lot worse things that could go in this spot in place of Borders.

  • http://nakedphilly.com/washington-square-west/who-wants-to-buy-1-south-broad-street/ Who Wants to Buy 1 South Broad Street? | NakedPhilly

    [...] A private New York firm led by David Werner, according to the PBJ, purchased the building in April 2003, for $48M. Looks like Mr. Werner will have a handsome profit coming his way. Home to a Borders for about a decade, a Walgreens will soon appear in a large, multi-story retail space here. [...]

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