Fayetteville Panel Approves CVS Pharmacy Plans

Commission Also OKs New Kum & Go Store, Memory Care Facility

FAYETTEVILLE — The country’s second largest pharmacy chain is coming to Fayetteville.

Planning commissioners on Monday approved plans for a CVS Pharmacy at the northeast corner of College Avenue and Township Street, where a Days Inn motel has been for years.

The commission also permitted a center for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease patients near Crossover and Zion roads and signed off on plans for a 16-pump Kum & Go fuel station in south Fayetteville where the Tyson Mexican Original plant was.

At A Glance

Commission Action

Fayetteville's Planning Commission met Monday and:

• Voted to keep a $94,000 assessment Arvest Bank paid the city in 2007 for another five years. City officials expect to use the money to build a bridge over Mud Creek to extend Vantage Drive to Sain Street near a Panera Bread restaurant. The extended street could eventually tie into a bridge that’s being built. The bridge will connect northbound College Avenue to the Fulbright Expressway.

• Approved a permit allowing the Wesley Foundation to have a student ministry house at Lindell Avenue and Douglas Street, southeast of the University of Arkansas’ Garland Avenue parking garage. The foundation’s chapel on Maple Street is being demolished to make way for two sorority houses.

Source: Staff Report

The CVS drug store will be the Woonsocket, R.I.-based company’s first store in Washington or Benton counties, according to CVS’ website. The company has more than 7,000 stores nationwide.

The Township Street site is across College Avenue from a Walgreens store. Walgreens is the largest pharmacy chain in the U.S. with more than 8,000 locations. The Deerfield, Ill.-based company will have six stores in Fayetteville when a new pharmacy opens at Wedington Drive and Rupple Road.

College Avenue and Township Street has seen several new developments in recent years. A Kum & Go fuel station opened on the southeast corner of the intersection in 2011, and Arvest Bank is building a branch at the southwest corner.

Joshua Knott, development project manager with Boos Development Group, said he couldn’t give a timeline for when the Days Inn will be demolished or when the CVS Pharmacy will open. Knott said that depends on how long it takes the company to obtain building permits from the city.

Justin Jorgensen with Jorgensen & Associates engineers told commissioners Monday that a 64-bed “memory care” facility planned just north of Culpepper Place Assisted Living would be operated by the same company that runs Culpepper Place. The commission has to approve plans before construction can begin.

Commissioners in October approved plans for a similar assisted living and memory care facility at 1967 Truckers Drive, near the Fayetteville Sam’s Club. That facility, called Clarity Pointe, is under construction.

Construction could begin soon on Kum & Go’s third convenience store in Fayetteville. According to development plans approved Monday, the West Des Moines, Iowa-based company and the city will share in the cost of building a street from the Huntsville Road and Happy Hollow Road intersection along the south end of the property. Kum & Go will be responsible for curb, gutter and sidewalk improvement along Ray Avenue on the east side of the property.

Commissioners rejected Kum & Go’s request for a 36-foot-wide driveway on Ray Avenue. City code prohibits driveways wider than 24 feet on residential streets.

Nathan Streett with CEI engineers said a wider driveway would accommodate trucks with trailers. Commissioner William Chesser said trucks could use the entrance being built from the Huntsville/Happy Hollow Road intersection.

“I’m not sure why we would burden Ray Avenue when there are multiple other ways to enter and leave the site,” Chesser said.

Chesser, Sarah Bunch, Kyle Cook, Blake Pennington and Porter Winston voted to deny Kum & Go’s variance request. Commissioners Craig Honchell and Tracy Hoskins opposed the action. Ryan Noble and Ron Autry weren't present at Monday’s meeting.

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