Walgreens' new location welcomed by customers
From the News-Herald
By Cassandra Shofar
A corner of Eastlake has not only been revamped, but its anchor store has opened earlier than anticipated.
With a ribbon-cutting ceremony on November 19, Walgreens reopened its doors Friday after moving from its former location at 33693 Vine St. into the new 14,820-square-foot building at 35279 Vine St.
"It's been wonderful," store manager Chris Lockwood said. "You wouldn't believe the customers that are in the store. It's been a very, very, very busy morning."
The store had tentatively been planning to open early next year, however, the transition to the new location took only 18 days and went smoothly, Lockwood said, adding they'll still have a grand reopening circular most likely in January.
"We're running specials for the next two weeks on various household items," he said.
There are a lot of other deals going on as well, Lockwood said.
"We're very excited. This is one of the new prototype stores that have a cement floor that's polished and shined," he said.
"And it's in, I think, one of the most powerful locations in Eastlake."
 Walgreens is the anchor tenant for the plaza. Neil Weinberger, president of Chagrin Falls-based JND Properties, the developer for the project, has said the hope is that once Walgreens was complete, it will spark more interest from other prospective tenants.
"It's really cleaned up that whole corner," Mayor Ted Andrzejewski said. "We had a junk yard, an old house and the Beanie's Bar there before. They put in a nice Walgreens there. It's a new store, a bigger store, more employees.
"Now, what that has done is what we thought it would be doing," he added. "Now, right across from Walgreens (at East 354th and Vine streets), Key Bank bought a parcel of land so now we're going to have a new Key Bank there, replacing the used car lot. So again, that's another new building going up, attracting other businesses."
As part of the plaza renovation, two curb cuts were eliminated on Vine Street to allow more traffic flow, the mayor said.
One of the curb cuts, on Route 91, had created an impasse between the city and Ohio Department of Transportation at one time.
An agreement was struck to have a deceleration lane built along the right side of Route 91's northbound lanes and for a public road that would connect the heavily traveled street to East 354th Street.
"So now that corner is open right before the stop light," Andrzejewski said. "We made sure the access to and from Walgreens flows very well."
But this project was more than just about a plaza, the mayor said.
"The last two years, we've had a bad economy," he said. "Yet we have a new Walgreens, we're getting a new Key Bank. We're getting a new Dollar General Store and Walmart just recently said they're going to build a new Super Walmart where the old Kmart building is."
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