Progress made at Sterling Drug site

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WORTHINGTON — Construction on Sterling Drug’s new downtown location is set to be completed by March, Sterling parent company Astrup Drug announced Friday.

“The footings and the foundation have been poured and we’re starting to backfill,” explained Kyle Johnson of Johnson Construction and Realtors, the construction manager on the project, in a news release. “The owners (of the store) are shooting for March, so that’s when we’re shooting for.”

The new facility will be located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 10th Street.

The new site will have less square footage than the current store in Northland Mall, but will feature an expanded selection of Durable Medical Equipment (walkers, support braces and the like) and greater accessibility.

“We’re going to have one drive-thru, but the ease of access is going to be considerably better,” said Sterling Drug Pharmacy Manager Brian Hagen. “Right now we have one, but people don’t know we have it because it’s sitting in the back.”

The new site will also feature “ample parking and two entrances,” he added.

The store will continue selling convenience items like candy and will expand its selection of over-the-counter medications and aids. The gift selection will be downsized significantly.

Hagen views the development as a natural fit with other medical facilities in the area, including Avera Worthington Specialty Clinics, Sanford Medical Center and Iowa Lakes Orthopaedics, which moved into and remodeled Sterling’s downtown location when it closed in July of last year.

“I just see it as a kind of medical corridor or medical campus area,” he said. “We’re excited; it’s nice to have things get back to the downtown.”

Local officials have also rallied in support of the pharmacy’s construction, hoping it will serve as an economic development tool.

This spring, the Worthington City Council and District 518 Board of Education granted a request by Astrup Drug Inc. to abate taxes on the property for a 15-year period. The nearly $48,000 in abated taxes will go toward the company’s redevelopment costs.

Preparation for the grand opening has not begun, but Hagen said it will definitely be a “grand” event.

“We have to make sure that the timeline is right, but there will definitely be a big, ribbon-cutting grand opening,” he said. “It’ll be a lot of fun for everyone.”

Sterling Drug will remain open at its current location on Oxford Street until construction is completed on the new store, after which time patients’ records will be transferred to the new site.

“We’ll still be the same pharmacy that you’ve come to know,” Hagen said. “We’ll just be new and improved, more efficient, and geared more towards personal health care.”

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