Walgreens To Open Three Full-Sized Stores

Walgreens is opening three full-size stores in the Spokane area to replace smaller RxPress shops.

The company will only officially confirm that it is building a store at Lincoln Road and Division, but the city of Spokane has issued a permit for demolition of the Buywell at Wellesley and Crestline to make way for a Walgreens store there.

Also, Carl Guenzel of Kiemle & Hagood said that he and Jim Quigley, also of Kiemle & Hagood, have leased 22,000 square feet of space to Walgreens in the former Huckleberry’s building at Sprague and Sullivan.

Guenzel said Walgreens will operate a 16,500 square-foot store at that site, cutting off about 6,000 square feet of the building to make way for a drive-through window. He added that Walgreens has also been looking at building a new store at Division and Hawthorne.

The new Walgreens stores will be considerably larger than the seven RxPress stores the company now operates in Spokane, said Walgreens spokesman Michael Polzin.

“The RxPress stores are only about 2,000 square feet, and they only carry a limited selection of over-the-counter health items and a pharmacy,” he said. “Our full-size stores are about 15,000 square feet. They have a pharmacy, drive-through pharmacy and a full selection of over-the-counter health items, cosmetics and beauty aids and camera products and photo finishing, greeting cards and convenience food items.”

Polzin said the Lincoln and Division store will replace the RxPress store at 6515 N. Division. Eventually, he said, Walgreens would like to open five full-size stores in the Spokane area, closing all of its RxPress locations.