Downtown Walgreens, a crucial resource, must be saved (Atlanta, Oliver: condo, neighborhood)

[LynnHarris1]

An online petition has gathered hundreds of signatures in hopes of sparing what its creators call a crucial downtown retailer that’s on the brink of closing.

Launched last week, the Change.org petition claims the Walgreens store in the remade Olympia Building at 25 Peachtree Street is permanently closing sometime within the next month..."

https://atlanta.urbanize.city/post/p...ucial-resource

Urbanize Atlanta

[ShenardL]

Georgia State students really need this, they also need a supermarket downtown. Georgia Tech students at least can go to Publix, Whole Foods, and a CVS.

[testa50]

Didn’t they just completely renovate this building to be a Walgreens a few years ago?

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by ShenardL

Georgia State students really need this, they also need a supermarket downtown. Georgia Tech students at least can go to Publix, Whole Foods, and a CVS.

Yeah, it’s disappointing to see one of the very few retail outlets leave Downtown.

(The only other retail outlet nearby that I can think of is the RaceTrac gas station and convenience store at Piedmont and J.W. Dobbs avenues.)

Though, there do seem to be some decent long-term prospects for a grocery store to eventually open Downtown as part of the massive Centennial Yards South Downtown redevelopment project. Although, the timeline on such an event as a new grocery store opening in the area admittedly seems to be very indefinite and uncertain at this point in time.

A future grocery store reportedly is in the long-term plans to be part of the GSU-led Summerhill redevelopment project south of Downtown.

Originally Posted by testa50

Didn’t they just completely renovate this building to be a Walgreens a few years ago?

Yep. But the talk seems to be that Walgreens is closing this location due to a high occurrence of shoplifting and vandalism.

[testa50]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

(The only other retail outlet nearby that I can think of is the RaceTrac gas station and convenience store at Piedmont and J.W. Dobbs avenues.)

There’s a CVS at Peachtree Center 5 blocks to the north, but point taken. It must be really difficult to run any sort of shop in the Five Points area.

Over towards Centennial Olympic Park it would be a lot easier to run a business.

[DoubleZ OTP]

As a recent GSU grad, I can't say I'm surprised that this particular Walgreens is considering a permanent closure. The shrinkage at that location has to be astronomical. That particular 3-block stretch of Peachtree St between Woodruff Park and Underground Atlanta is where many of the homeless, addicts, and drunks tend to congregate; some of those individuals would steal from this store on a regular basis. I've seen boarded-up windows multiple times here (presumably from break-ins overnight). If it closes, that would be very unfortunate for my fellow Panthers as well as for residents of nearby condo buildings like The Metropolitan, The William Oliver, and The Healey Building.

It's a shame because -- independent of Downtown's issues -- the location is spectacular. The historic architecture is beautiful, it's on the park, it's in the most transit-connected area of Metro Atlanta, and there's a ton of foot traffic (students, office workers, condo residents) during weekdays. Hopefully, as more money pours into the area in the form of investments and people, the City of Atlanta and Central Atlanta Progress will begin to prioritize quality-of-life improvements, starting with removing rule breaking individuals (blocking the sidewalk, public drunkenness, harassment, yelling, soliciting, etc). from Downtown streets. If that happens, and if Downtown is allowed to flourish like it could, then I think the Walgreens space would be ideal for a Lidl grocery store or similar. Maybe even a really big Savi Provisions if wealthier people decide to move to Downtown. Lidl (or any other grocery store) will want to see population growth in the neighborhood before they consider opening a store, and the population growth will be lackluster if the quality of life in Downtown doesn't improve.

The opening of the Summerhill Publix this summer will be a boon to GSU students living on campus next semester (as well as the Summerhill community, of course, and even Downtown); I imagine that GSU will incorporate this Publix into their Panther Express shuttle service, which already makes stops at the Blue Lot down the street.

[bryantm3]

Part of the problem is that they only have one person working in there. They are trying to basically automate stores and remove the people and it's not working... not working at Kroger either.

[Fountain-of-youth]

I hate to see downtowns in this state lose good retailers because of bad statistics.

[Smocaine]

I don't know what anyone is expecting when the city allows Downtown to be a lawless wasteland.