Downtown DRUG STORE
New pharmacy to open in Imperial Building next spring
The Imperial Building delivered Downtown Albuquerque’s new grocery store earlier this year.
Now it’s bringing a pharmacy, too.
Brothers Jason and Justin Graves plan to open Albuquerque City Drug at the Imperial next spring, further filling out the ground-level commercial space in the new building at 205 Silver SW.
The Dallas-based brothers have four other pharmacies in the region, but this is their first in Albuquerque. Jason Graves said they had been eyeing the market for some time, and research on the Downtown area came back “favorable.”
“We’ve been looking at (Albuquerque) for a while, and this opportunity kind of presented itself,” he said Friday. “We looked into it, and it worked out.”
The pharmacy, almost 2,000 square feet, will fill prescriptions and sell over-the-counter medications to start. Graves said it will eventually add services like compounding and immunizations.
David Silverman of Geltmore, which developed the Imperial Building in partnership with YES Housing, said a pharmacy has been on his tenant wish list from the get go. He saw it as an obvious companion to Silver Street Market, the grocery store that opened at the property in August, as well as a much-needed neighborhood amenity.
“Pharmacy is a convenience business, and you need to make it as convenient as possible for people,” he said. “To not have one in a location where there is such a high concentration of people, at least during the day, was a little bit surprising. Now that there’s a growing residential population (in the area), it just makes a lot of sense.”
Graves said he plans to supplement foot traffic with an active delivery business and will soon start a strong marketing effort targeting area medical providers, assisted living facilities and others who might benefit from the service.
“We definitely don’t want to open and just expect everybody to come walking in the door,” he said. “We don’t want to put ourselves out on that limb.”
In addition to the grocery store and the forthcoming pharmacy, the Imperial Building also has two restaurants — Maya and Crackin’ Crab — the Monks’ Corner Taproom and Salon Jerome. Silverman said three suites remain. He said he would like to add the likes of a nail salon and dry cleaners but is interested in any business that brings synergy to the development, which also includes 74 apartments.